CAPTAIN G.L. NICHOLLS, ROYAL AIR FORCE. Two: British War and Victory Medals (Captain, Roya
£350.00
CAPTAIN G.L. NICHOLLS, ROYAL AIR FORCE. Two: British War and Victory Medals (Captain, Royal Air Force). Extremely Fine and virtually as struck.
Group accompanied by 3 pages of photocopied service papers. George Lawson Nicholls, born 21st October 1893, was the son of Charles J. Nicholls of 106 Cambridge St., London SW1. A solicitor by trade, he graduated from the London University in September 1915. Nicholls was first commissioned Temporary Flight Sub-Lieutenant 2nd January 1916, promoted Flight Lieutenant 30th June 1917, and Captain 1st April 1918, and transferred to the Unemployed List on 11th February 1919.
Nicholls served in the Airship Branch of the Royal Naval Air Service, being based initially at the Wormword Scrubs Repair Depot from 2nd January 1916, and subsequently saw service at the Clement Talbot Works from 6th March 1916 to 11th May of the same year (during which period he took a gunnery course at the Shore Establishment HMS Excellent), was posted to the RNAS Station at Crystal Palace on 12th May 1916, transferred to the RNAS Airship Station at Capel, Kent, on 24th May 1916, the Wormwood Scrubbs Repair Depot on 21st September 1916 for a “Theory” course, the RNAS Station at Anglesea on 5th January 1917, the Admiralty on 28th August 1917 for a compass course, the RNAS Training Establishment stationed at Cranwell on 10th September 1917, and the RNAS Station at Longside, Aberdeen, on 14th March 1918, to study Coastal Instruction.
The April 1918 Air Force List confirms G.L. Nicholls as a Lieutenant and Honourary Captain serving as an airship or dirigible officer. This was only a small unit within the Royal Air Force, the officers of which in April 1918 comprised some five Lieutenant-Colonels, twelve Majors, twelve Captains, one hundred and thirty nine Lieutenants and three Second Lieutenants. Nicholls’s service papers confirm that he had “flown SS, SSBE, SS Maurice Farman, SS P&L” and notes that he was “qualified for compass duties”.