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Auction: 7012 - Orders, Decorations, Medals & Militaria
Lot: 549

The Great War D.S.O. Group of Seven to Major T.W. ´Tommy´ Lloyd, Liverpool Regiment, Later Intelligence Officer, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, to Guy Gibson´s Legendary 617 (Dambuster) Squadron, With Whom He Helped Plan the Celebrated Raid in May 1943; He Was Tragically Killed in a Flying Accident the Following Year a) Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R., silver-gilt and enamel, with integral top riband bar, top riband bar lacking retaining pin b) 1914-15 Star, naming erased c) British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. Oakleaves (Major T.W. Lloyd.) d) Defence and War Medals, M.I.D. Oakleaf e) Serbia, Order of St. Sava, 2nd type, Knight´s breast Badge, Bishop with red robes, minor enamel damage, reverse centre slightly loose, otherwise good very fine or better The group with the following original documents &c.: - Bestowal document for the Distinguished Service Order, dated 3.6.1918, and statutes - Commission appointing T.W. Lloyd as Second Lieutenant, 4th Battalion, The King´s, dated 5.9.1914 - Commission appointing recipient as Pilot Officer, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, dated 17.9.1940 - Two Mentioned in Despatch Certificates, dated 1.1.1943 and 8.6.1944 - Second War Parchment Memorial Scroll - Contemporary copy of Cheshire´s letter of condolence to recipient´s wife; letter of condolence from Buckingham Palace addressed to recipient´s wife, and other related ephemera including a photograph of Lloyd de-briefing Guy Gibson´s crew following the Dams raid (7) Estimate £ 2,000-2,400 D.S.O. London Gazette 3.6.1918 Capt. (A./Maj.) Thomas Williams Lloyd, L´pool R., Spec. Res., Empld. R.E. ´For distinguished services rendered with the British Forces on the Mediterranean Line of Communications. Dated 3rd June, 1918.´ Order of St. Sava, 5th Class London Gazette 9.3.1917 Captain Thomas William [sic] Lloyd, Liverpool Regiment, attached Royal Engineers Squadron Leader Thomas ´Tommy´ Williams Lloyd, D.S.O., commissioned Second Lieutenant 4th (Extra Reserve) Battalion Liverpool Regiment, 15.8.1914; served during the Great War on the Western Front from, 5.3.1915 (wounded); Captain 17.12.1915; attached as Adjutant to a unit of 2,000 Royal Engineers at Liphook for six months before joining the mission that evacuated the Serbian Army from Albania to Salonika; Acting Major 1.12.1916; spent a year as Deputy Assistant Director of Inland Water Transport (Mesopotamia) and as Personal Assistant to General Grey in that capacity; towards the end of the war Lloyd was transferred to Italy for service in transportation ( D.S.O.; M.I.D. London Gazette 15.8.1917 and 7.10.1918); after the armistice Lloyd was one of a mission of three officers sent by the War Office to report on communications in Hungary and the Adriatic Ports; re-engaged for the Second War and was commissioned as Pilot Officer Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, 12.8.1940; Temporary Flight Lieutenant 1.9.1941; posted as Intelligence Officer at Woodhall Spa and acted as I.O. to Guy Gibson´s newly formed "Squadron X", soon to be retitled No. 617 "Dambuster" Squadron; in this role Lloyd would have played no small part in the organisational side of the legendary Dams raid, May 1943, and de-briefed the returning "Dambusters" (see photograph). Lloyd receives several mentions in Gibson´s memoir Enemy Coast Ahead, including coming up with the idea of marking targets with incendiaries dropped by crack Beaufighter or Mosquito crews, ´their job would be to go in at dusk, just before the main force was due, and drop coloured incendiaries on the factory itself. These could be seen from high up and the boys of the main force would be able to do steady bombing runs which would plaster the area with cookies." Despite the popularity of the idea with others, including ´Hoppy´ Hopgood, Gibson vetoed the suggestion pointing out the heavy losses that the marking force was likely to suffer. (M.I.D. London Gazette 1.1.1943 and 8.6.1944) Tragically Lloyd was killed in a flying accident, 13.2.1944. The Squadron had been forced to land at Ford due to inclement weather, following a return from an operation to the Antheor Viaduct, ´About the same time the rest of the squadron was landing at Ford in thick weather. Tommy Lloyd, Woodhall intelligence officer, had flown to Ford and de-briefed them, and then the weather worsened and it looked as though they were stranded for a while. [Squadron Leader Bill] Suggit thought he could make it to Woodhall Spa all right and offered a seat in his aircraft to Lloyd, a gallant and revered World War I veteran. The immaculate Lloyd accepted but insisted on having a shave before take-off. A little later, spruce and monocled, he climbed into "J Jug" with Suggit, and five minutes later the aircraft flew into a hill and everyone was killed instantly except Bill Suggit, who lingered for a couple of days before he died.´ (Dam Busters, P. Brickhill refers). Lancaster I DV382 had taken off at 8.20am, crashing ten minutes later on high ground at Waltham Down, Sussex, the crew of seven included Flight Sergeant J. Pulford, D.F.M., who had been flight engineer to Wing Commander G. Gibson, V.C., D.S.O., D.F.C. on the Dams Raid (Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War, refers). Five days after the accident Wing Commander Cheshire, commanding 617 Squadron, wrote to Lloyd´s widow: ´Your husband had been with this Squadron ever since it first formed, and wherever the Squadron went, he went too. He looked after us not only as an Intelligence Officer, but also as a friend, and I don´t think that any loss could mean more to us than his. I know there is little I can say that will help you ease your burden, but I would at least like to tell you something of the influence that Tommy had on all of us. He was somehow a man to whom you could always turn in trouble, and a man who always did so much to make our life happier and more comfortable. Wherever I may go, I know that I shall meet no-one more tolerant or unselfish, and on behalf of everyone here, as well as myself, I would like to extend to you my great appreciation and gratefulness for all that he did for us, and for the personal sacrifices that he so often made. I would like to extend to you my deepest and most profound sympathy.´ (Copy of letter included in lot, refers). Squadron Leader T.W. Lloyd, D.S.O., is commemorated at Cheltenham Crematorium.

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