WWI MILITARY CROSS GROUP OF 3 MEDALS & EPHEMERA TO CAPT. T. OWEN, R.A.F

*** SOLD *** Military Cross George V; WWI War & Victory Medals to Capt. T. Owen, R.A.F., accompanied by the recipient’s captioned photograph album documenting his time in Egypt, October 1916 - January 1917, 48 pictures; album of family related photographs, containing a good portrait photograph of the recipient in South Staffordshire Regiment officer’s uniform; identity bracelet, in 9 carat gold, front of fob engraved ‘Capt. T. Owen, M.C. Cong: R.A.F.’ and the reverse engraved ‘To Tommy from Major R. E. Saul, Comdg. 4, Squadron R.A.F.’; cloth R.F.C wings; cloth R.A.F. wings; Military Cross riband bar; R.A.F. brass ’eagle and crown’ cap insignia; wound stripe; Royal Flying Corps cap badge; a small piece of rock on which handwritten in ink ‘Alabaster, Pyramids, 2.7.16’; an annotated aerial photograph of the area of land between Armentieres and Lille taken 16 July 1917; two original Temporary Commission documents - 2nd Lieutenant in Land Forces, dated 26 July 1915 and Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force, dated 1 April 1918; King’s Message to the Royal Air Force document; cloth arm badge - 4 red chevrons; Photograph of an RE8 of No. 4 Squadron with pilot (possibly Owen) and observer; a further quantity of photographs - both family and military subjects; a quantity of cards, menus, certificates and other ephemera.

Description

Military Cross Gazetted 26 July 1918:

“For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He has carried out many successful low reconnaissances, bringing back good reports. When on artillery patrol, he succeeded in completely disorganising the traffic on a main road, getting direct hits on troops and transport by artillery. On this occasion it is estimated that forty lorries were destroyed. He also attacked enemy troops and transport with bombs and machine-guns with success.”

Thomas Owen was born in 1889, a native of Meifod, Powys, who lived most of his life in Aberystwyth. Owen was Gazetted Second Lieutenant to a Regular Army Battalion of the South Staffordshire Regiment on 26 July 1915, attached to the 2/10 Battalion, Middlesex Regiment, posted to Egypt (not entitled to 1914-15 Star) and transferred to the Royal Flying Corps in 1916, training as a Pilot partly in Egypt and partly at the Central Flying School, Upavon, Wiltshire.

Owen was Gazetted Flying Officer on 16 Mar 1917 and three months later was posted to France where, from 30 June 1917 he was on active service as a pilot with 4 Squadron (RE8s) at a time when the average life of a pilot was a fortnight. Owen survived a close call on 21 Sep 1917, when he and his Observer, Second Lieutenant L. V. W. Clark, in RE8, ‘A4298’, eventually extricated themselves and got home safely following a fraught combat with five enemy machines above Polygon Wood.

Sent out to 14 Squadron in Palestine, Owen was wounded in action in the leg during a photo-reconnaissance patrol on 9 January 1918 and was awarded the Military Cross on 13 May 1918. Captain Owen returned to the Home Establishment on 4 June 1918 and left the R.A.F. via the Unemployed List, on 27 May 1919, later becoming an Inspector of Schools.