‘Captain Jack And The Furious Few’ A rare Great War medal pa...

Hammer

£1,100

‘Captain Jack And The Furious Few’ A rare Great War medal pair to Captain Jack McCleery, Royal Naval Air Service, Royal Air Force. Comprising the Defence medal (Capt. J. M. McCleerey R.A.F.); and the Victory medal (Capt. J. M. McCleerey R.A.F.). With Air Ministry delivery note dated 7th July 1923. Both in original boxes, with On His Majesty's Service envelopes. 

McCleery was born in Belfast in 1898. He joined the Royal Naval Air Service in 1916 as a Probationary Flight Officer. Over the following ten months, he completed his training at Crystal Palace, Eastchurch, Cranwell, Frieston, Calshot, and the Isle of Grain. During this period, he flew more than a dozen different types of landplanes, seaplanes, and flying boats, earning his wings as a Flight Sub-Lieutenant. 

An exceptional pilot, in July 1917 McCleery was posted to the newly commissioned aircraft carrier HMS Furious, which would be based at Scapa Flow and Rosyth. He served aboard Furious until February 1919, operating Short 184 seaplanes and later Sopwith 1½ Strutters from her deck—becoming one of the world’s first pilots to operate from an aircraft carrier. He also flew a wide variety of other aircraft types from shore stations at Turnhouse, East Fortune, and Donibristle. 

During this formative period in naval aviation, McCleery served alongside several notable airmen, including Edwin Dunning, Frederick Rutland (of Jutland fame), and Richard Bell Davies VC. He witnessed Dunning’s historic first successful landing of a Sopwith Pup on the deck of a moving ship in 1917, as well as the pilot’s tragic death just days later. 

McCleery and his elite squadron of aviators achieved a number of pioneering milestones during this experimental era. Under the leadership of Squadron Commander Dunning, their unit was at the forefront of naval aviation. HMS Furious became one of the first aircraft carriers in the world, transforming naval ship design and military strategy forever. 

In 1918, McCleery was part of the support element for the Tondern Raid—an attack on German Zeppelin hangars and the first successful carrier-based air strike in history. He took part in more than a dozen sweeps into the North Sea with elements of the Grand Fleet and Battle Cruiser Fleet, and undertook numerous reconnaissance missions off the coast of Denmark. Given the nascent state of aircraft carrier operations, pilots frequently landed in the sea to be retrieved by waiting destroyers. 

He was present at the surrender of the German High Seas Fleet later that year. Promoted to Captain in the newly formed Royal Air Force, McCleery served as the temporary Commanding Officer of F Squadron for a time during the post-war period. He retired from the RAF in 1969 and died in 1983. 

Captain Jack was the subject of the 2018 BBC documentary Captain Jack And The Furious Few, available on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz6AdGSL6XY. 

He was also the subject of the 2011 book: World War One Aircraft Carrier Pioneer: The Story and Diaries of Captain JM McCleery RNAS/RAF, by Guy Warner. Sold with a copy of the book, and copies of his diary entries.

Provnance: By direct descent.