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Auction: 23003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 98

A poignant group of three awarded to Captain T. A. Tillard, Royal Flying Corps, late Middlesex Regiment and Norfolk Yeomanry

Having seen action in No. 3 Squadron in the early summer of 1916, when he was admitted to hospital with a bullet wound, he saw further action over the Somme but was killed in a flying accident at the year's end

British War and Victory Medals (Capt. T. A. Tillard); Great War Bronze Memorial Plaque (Thomas Atkinson Tillard), in its card sleeve, good very fine (3)

Thomas Atkinson Tillard was born in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A., on 25 February 1884, the younger son of Algernon and Mary (nee Withers) Tillard. Following his father's death in June 1887, his mother married John Bonham-Carter of Adhurst St. Mary, Petersfield in November 1891, and it was here that young Thomas was raised from the age of seven; his mother's second marriage resulted in the birth of Thomas's half-sister, Mary Helen Bonham-Carter, who remained at Adhurst St. Mary after marrying Alan Lubbock in April 1918, the family home by that stage being used as a 150-bed military hospital.

Educated at Eton College and Cambridge University, Thomas was bequeathed the small fortune of £10,000 by his stepfather, Mr. John Bonham-Carter, who passed away on 21 December 1905, leaving an estate of £267,400 0s. 8d. Nonetheless, in the following year, after graduating from Cambridge, he found employment as a civil engineer specialising in hydraulics and irrigation in the Sudan.

On the outbreak of the Great War, he attested for the Middlesex Regiment as a Private but he was quickly commissioned into the Norfolk Yeomanry on 10 November 1914. Having remained employed on the home establishment in the interim, he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps and qualified as a pilot at the Central Flying School in March 1916.

In the following month he joined No. 3 Squadron in France, a period of active service which was curtailed on 6 July 1916, when he was admitted to hospital with a bullet wound in his leg. On his recovery, in September of the same year, he was posted as a Flight Commander to No. 34 Squadron, prior to re-joining his old unit, No. 3 Squadron, a month later. As a result, he continued to see action over the Somme.

Then at the end of November 1916, he joined No. 1 Squadron. One week later, with Lieutenant G. Murdoch as his Observer, Thomas came to grief testing Moraine P. 5175, which crashed near Meterin. The circumstances of his death were later recorded by Charles R. Main, who was able to relay an eye-witness account of his final moments by Captain Bettinger:

'He was out testing a Morane (which is a machine on which it is not safe to take any chances) and apparently without warning he lost control and the machine nose-dived to earth from about five thousand feet. Poor old Tom was killed instantly, the engine being driven right back as far as the passenger's seat. He had a trick of throttling down his engine until the wind just supported him, or so that he was not moving relative to the ground, and so it is quite conceivable that if the wind velocity was below the flying speed (minimum) of the machine it would be unstable and loss of control result, and being at a low altitude, he was not able to regain control.'

Main added:

'He did some very good work in the Flying Corps and was universally liked, his men seemed to be particularly fond of him and there were few sorrier to hear of his death than I' (An extract from Technology Review, M.I.T., November 1918, refers).

Thomas was buried in Bailleul Military Cemetery Extension. In common with his brother Philip - who was killed in action with the East Surreys at the battle of the Ancre on 18 November 1916 - he is commemorated on an impressive brass plaque mounted on the wall of St. Mary Magdalen Church in Sheet, Hampshire, the closing poignant words of the plaque stating: 'Loved and pleasant were they in their lives and in death they were not divided.'

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Sold for
£520

Starting price
£400