Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

An interesting and well-documented O.B.E. group of six awarded to Group Captain W. J. Pickard, Royal Air Force, who served as Station Commander at R.A.F. Lyneham, where he was responsible for several V.I.P. flights and visitors, and in 1945 Commanded the Staging Post at Saki for the duration of the Yalta Conference, being responsible for the safe arrival of Churchill and Roosevelt onto Soviet soil

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Military) Officer’s 2nd type breast badge, silver, with Royal Mint case of issue; India General Service 1908-35, 1 clasp, North West Frontier 1930-31 (F/O. W. J. Pickard. R.A.F.); 1939-45 Star; Africa Star, 1 clasp, North Africa 1942-43; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, mounted as worn; together with the recipient’s Czechoslovakia Air Force Pilot’s Badge, by Spink, London, silver, with silver-gilt wings, in fitted case of issue; a Worshipful Company of Distillers Livery Medal, silver, the reverse engraved ‘Pickard, Walter John 21st April 1953’, with neck riband; and a H.M.S. Hindustan Medallion, uniface, good very fine (lot) £2000-3000

Provenance: Sotheby’s, June 1983.

O.B.E. London Gazette 14 June 1945.

An earlier Recommendation, for a C.B.E., dated 4 February 1944, states: ‘Group Captain Pickard has been with the Group since April 1942, ands has served on the Group Staff, as Officer Commanding No. 511 Liberator Transport Squadron, and since April 1943, as Station Commander at Lyneham. Whilst at Group Headquarters he displayed great organising ability as Wing Commander Training. As Officer Commanding 511 Squadron he made many journeys to the Middle East and he has been largely responsible for the high order of service which the Squadron has achieved. As Commander of R.A.F. Station Lyneham he has also been responsible for the main Ferry training Unit for Overseas Reinforcement Aircrews. Under his direction this Unit has consistently added to its own commitment those of other Ferry Training Units, thus enabling a greater number of reinforcement aircraft to be despatched overseas than could otherwise have been achieved.
During the past year 1304 reinforcement aircraft and upwards of 5,000 aircrew passed through the Station, figures far exceeding those attained in the previous year. The totals of reinforcement aircraft despatched overseas would have been considerably less but for this Officer’s efforts. The Station is one of the largest in the country and the air traffic heavy, frequently reaching 4,000 aircraft movements monthly. Moreover, its functions are heavy and varied. During the past year some 5,500 passengers including large numbers of V.I.P.s of both this country, Allied Nations, and Neutrals have been carried and the air freight load has been increased fivefold.
The tireless energy and high devotion to duty of this Officer have been exceptional and an inspiration to all those under his command. I therefore strongly recommend him for the C.B.E.’

Walter John Pickard was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, in 1906 and was commissioned Pilot Officer in the Royal Air Force on 16 January 1926. He transferred to the Reserve on 16 January 1931, and was promoted Flying Officer on 16 July 1927. Following the outbreak of the Second World War he was recalled to active service and was advanced Squadron Leader in the General Duties Branch on 1 June 1940. He served as a Flying Instructor at the first R.A.F. School in Canada, at Kingston, Ontario, before returning to the U.K. as Officer Commanding No. 511 (Transport) Squadron in October 1942, based at R.A.F. Transport Command Station, Lyneham. Here he took part in a number of operations, mainly ferrying passengers, mail, and freight between Lyneham, Gibraltar, and Malta, before taking over as Station Commander at Lyneham on 10 March 1943. He continued flying operations, including various V.I.P. flights, and, post D-Day, helped supply the Armies in North-West Europe.

In early 1945 Pickard was posted to Command the staging Post at Saki, in the Crimea, into which flew the British, American, and Russian delegations for the Three Power Conference at Yalta. Departing Lyneham on 17 January, Pickard arrived in Saki, by way of Malta, Athens, and Sarabuz, two days later. Over the course of the Conference, code-named Operation Argonaut, over 252 R.A.F. and U.S.A.A.F. aircraft flew in and out of Saki, and Pickard carried out his duties to complete satisfaction. The Conference over, Pickard, having been one of the first to arrive, was amongst the last to leave, and left Saki with the rear party on 18 February, arriving back in Lyneham by way of Cairo and Malta on 21 February. Passed over for the C.B.E. the year before, for his services in Saki Pickard was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1945 Birthday Honours’ List. As he said in an interview later, ‘It took a great deal of organising and aircraft. I flew to Yalta several times myself, but the airfield was some miles from the Conference, and I was able to catch only a fleeting glimpse of Stalin and Churchill.’ His final flight of the Second World War was as supply flight that took him from Lyneham to Malta, and then onto Cairo, Shaibah, Karachi, Colombo, and finally arriving in Delhi shortly before VJ-Day.

Sold with the following archive:

- Four of the recipient’s Flying Log Books, covering the entire Second World War

- A bound album entitled ‘For Services Rendered’, which includes named Buckingham Palace enclosure and Central Chancery letter for the O.B.E.; Certificate of award for the Czechoslovakian Air Force Badge, with accompanying letter, dated 22 June 1944; and signed letters from various V.I.P.’s whilst serving as Officer Commanding, R.A.F. Lyneham, including Air Vice Marshal Collier, Edwina Mountbatten, and Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Barratt; and various invitations, programmes and menus, many relating to his time in India

- A bound album entitled ‘Saki’, covering the period during which the recipient commanded the Saki Air Base at the time of the Yalta Conference, including the recipient’s original report of Operation Argonaut; various letters of appreciation; a selection of official photographs of the Conference, including several of Prime Minister Churchill, President Roosevelt, and Foreign Secretaries Eden, Stettinius, and Molotov; original Russian passes; a cartoon portrait of the recipient; and various other ephemera, the inside cover inscribed ‘Winston S. Churchill’

- Two leather-bound guest books which were kept by the recipient whilst in command of R.A.F. Lyneham, which include over 500 signatures, amongst which are those of Winston Churchill, King George II of Greece, Lord Gort, The Prime Minister of Poland, the Commander-in-Chief Soviet Air Force, Air Marshal Sir Ralph Cochrane, Edwina Mountbatten, Harold Macmillan, Lord Portal, Lord Dowding, Arthur ‘Bomber’ Harris, Harold Alexander, Anthony Eden, Ralph Richardson, and Lord Beaverbrook.