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Auction: 22103 - Orders, Decorations and Medals VII - e-Auction
Lot: 396

The tragic Pair awarded to Captain C. H. C. Keevil, Royal Flying Corps, late Royal Fusiliers and West Yorkshire Regiment, who was killed in action whilst gallantly attacking three Gotha bombers after a raid on London and Essex - a raid which inflicted the most civilian casualties of any carried out by the German Air Force on Great Britain during the Great War

1914-15 Star (Capt. C. H. C. Keevil. W. York. R.); Victory Medal 1914-19 (Capt. C. H. C. Keevil.), good very fine (2)

Cecil Horace Case Keevil initially served with the 18th ('Bradford Pals') Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment, being appointed Captain on 1 October 1915. Transferring to the Royal Flying Corps, June 1917 found Keevil as a member of No. 35 (Training) Squadron R.F.C.; it was on 13 June that the German Air Force conducted one of its' largest - and certainly most deadly - bombing raids on British soil during the whole of the Great War.
No fewer than 20 heavy bombers participated in the raid; of these 14 headed over London and began dropping their deadly cargo on East Ham, Islington and the Royal Albert Docks before attacking The City: a total of 72 bombs fell within a mile of Liverpool Street train station in the course of two minutes, inflicting horrendous casualties of 162 killed and 432 injured. This raid is also infamous for claiming the lives of 64 young children when a 50kg bomb fell on their school in Poplar. The raid complete, the bombers turned for home and by this time various Squadrons of the Royal Flying Corps (and Royal Naval Air Service) had taken to the air to combat the enemy. Unfortunately however, the response was completely uncoordinated and of 94 aircraft which took off, only eleven actually came within range of the Gotha bombers. One of these was a Bristol F2 Fighter, piloted by Captain C.W.E. Cole-Hamilton, with Keevil as his rear-gunner, who spotted three 'stragglers' over Ilford. Valiantly going in for the attack despite being outnumbered and outgunned, Cole-Hamilton and Keevil pressed home for just over ten minutes before the front gun jammed and Keevil was shot dead by defensive fire from the bombers, a bullet going through the left side of his neck and exiting under the right shoulder. Cole-Hamilton broke off and returned for home, the bombers doing likewise and making it back to Germany. Keevil, aged 36, is buried at Hampstead Cemetery in London, with his medals being sent to his widow, at St. Peter's Park Road in Broadstairs, Kent.

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Starting price
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