GROUPS AND SINGLE DECORATIONS FOR GALLANTRY


R. 101 at her mast at Cardington on the evening of 4 October 1930 shortly before departing on her ill-fated flight


I crawled on my hands and knees along the grass until I came to an obstacle which barred my path. It was a steel girder, which was so hot that it burned my hand to the bone. I got out just in time and I saw two men dash towards me shouting “There’s another.” One was Leech. They dragged me away. I joined them and tried to find some of the others.’


Then, in spite of his severe burns, Disley insisted before being treated on telephoning the first details of the disaster from Beauvais to the Air Ministry, a gallant gesture that gained the admiration of all who witnessed it, and the award of his B.E.M. The only other award to a member of R. 101’s crew would appear to be the Albert Medal bestowed on the Foreman Engineer, Henry Leech, A.F.M., who pulled Disley from the wreckage.


The return of the R. 101’s dead aboard two destroyers, their lying in state in Westminster Hall, and their burial in a common grave at Cardington were yet further cause for extensive media coverage, so too the subsequent investigation in to the causes of the tragedy. For his own part, Disley was invested with his B.E.M. at Cardington by Lord Amurlee, the newly appointed Air Minister, on 11 December 1930, and afterwards, in the presence of the Prime Minster and Secretary of State for Air, attended the unveiling of the R. 101 memorial in France.


Sold with a quantity of original documentation, including Royal Airship Works letter to Mrs. Disley, informing her of her husband’s survival, dated 5 October 1930; a Cardington notice board announcement detailing arrangements for the forthcoming presentation of Disley’s B.E.M., dated 9 December 1930; Air Ministry and Royal Airships Works letters regarding the unveiling of the R. 101’s memorial at Allonne, France, both dated 16 September 1933; a copy of the Minutes of Proceedings at the Public Enquiry into the Loss of the Airship R. 101, Fourth Day, 31 October 1930, held at the Institution of Civil Engineers, and containing Disley’s lengthy evidence; a post card of R. 101; and a comprehensive file of copied research, with definitive coverage of the official exchanges between Government offices to get Disley’s B.E.M. gazetted at the same time as Leech’s A.M.


The wreckage of R. 101 at Beauvais


www.dnw.co.uk


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