A Fine Collection of Medals to Officers Who Died During The Two World Wars

Pair: Lieutenant (Pilot) J. N. Nelson, No. 213 Squadron, Royal Air Force, mortally wounded in aerial combat on 12 June 1918

British War and Victory Medals (Lieut.); together with memorial plaque (James Noel Nelson); R.A.F. cloth wings, all mounted on a contemporary velvet covered fitted display board, extremely fine (4) £350-400

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Fine Collection of Medals to Officers Who Died During The Two World Wars.

View
Collection

James Noel Nelson was born in Glasgow on Christmas day 1899, and educated at the Glasgow Accademy. In the summer of 1917 he joined the university O.T.C., from which he passed to the Royal Naval College at Greenwich to train for a commission in the R.N.A.S. He passed out with the highest honours, and in April 1918, was transferred to the newly organised R.A.F. as a Flight Lieutenant. On 12 June 1918 he went out on a high offensive patrol, together with five other machines of his squadron. They were attacked by an enemy formation of sixteen planes, and in this combat Nelson received a wound in the spine, forcing him to land in his Sopwith Camel, which he did successfully from a height of 15,000 feet. He died as a result of this wound two days later in a Belgian hospital, and is buried at Hoogstade Belgian Cemetery, West Vlaanderen, Belgium. He was just 18 years of age.