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Auction: 22002 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 82

Four: Lieutenant C. H. G. Nida, Royal Air Force, late Volunteer, Bombay Volunteer Rifles and Calcutta Volunteers Motor Machine Gun Corps

1914-15 Star (8153 Vol. C. H. G. Nida. Bombay Vol. Rif.); British War and Victory Medals (Lieut. C. H. G. Nida. R.A.F.); Defence Medal 1939-45, good very fine (4)

1914-15 Star earned for services in Naval Detachment sent to Hardinge against the risk of attack from the Emden.

Charles Henry George Nida was born in France in 1895, the second of some thirteen children. After his family came to London in 1900, young Nida took up a posting with Hoare & Co., gentlemens outfitters of Bombay under contract for some three years in India from 1913. Upon the outbreak of the Great War he joined the Bombay Volunteer Rifles on 16 August 1914. He had the opportunity to earn himself the 1914-15 Star whilst serving afloat with Hardinge, as recalled in Chota Sahib...you've had a busy day!:

'There were rumours of an enemy raider at large in the Indian Ocean. People said it had already sunk tens of thousands of tons of shipping. It was the Emden...The authorities were not for taking any chances. Our Colonel called for volunteers to supplement the crew of Hardinge, our coastal Royal Indian Marine cruiser. The Hardinge was equipped with 4.7 inch guns. To contemplate tackling the Emden with its six-inch guns was suicide. However, it gave me the opportunity to see active service. Sixty men were called for; ten men for guarding each German ship [in the port], should the occasion arise. I was one of the fortunates to be chosen.'

Nida was noted on the books of Hardinge on 'service overseas' from 23 November-7 December 1914. He transferred to the Regular Army, joining the 26th Machine Gun Corps (Motors) (Calcutta Volunteers) on 1 November 1916. Arriving to Belgium they found they were not required so on 20 February 1918, Nida was commissioned into the Royal Flying Corps. When it became the Royal Air Force and his unit was to return home after the conclusion of hostilities:

'...it was his task to fly his unit's aeroplanes home across the Channel. He crash-landed the last one in a gusting side-wind - an accident which left him with one blocked nostril and an engagingly urbane drawl.'

Nida was, as the Foreword states:

'...one of a vanished breed of men: a self-declared empire-builder - and proud of it. But not for him the titled ranks of the Heaven-Born. He earned his spurs as a box-wallah: a travelling salesman in India on the eve of the Great War. Ever a great believer in trade as the way Britain must earn its living in the world, he was a chota sahib - "little man" - rubbing shoulders with the ordinary folk of India, treating them as equals and being treated likewise.'

Nida made his fortune as the British Empire began to decay, for he was required to produce some 10,000 copies of the Holy Quran in a four-colour edition that would be distributed in Nigeria. He served in the Home Guard and Air Raid Precautions at Hendon: Nida died at Hastings in 1985 but Chota Sahib...you've had a busy day! (published in 2008; a copy is included with the Lot) remains a fine memorial to a most unusual career; sold together with his original RAF commissioning certificate, silver identity bracelet, Soldier's Pay Book, photographs, his notebook on engines and copied research.

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Sold for
£550

Starting price
£240