Six: Captain A. H. Waddy, Bedfordshire Regiment, later Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air...

Six: Captain A. H. Waddy, Bedfordshire Regiment, later Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force, who first enlisted under the Tricolour in August 1914 as a Private in the French Army

1914-15 Star (2.Lieut. A. H. Waddy. Bedf. R.); British War and Victory Medals (Lieut. A. H. Waddy. R.A.F.); France, Third Republic, War Commemorative Medal 1914-18, bronze; Inter-Allied Victory Medal 1914-19, bronze; Croix du Combatant Voluntaire 1914-18, bronze, good very fine and better (6) £400-£500

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Alexander Harry Waddy was born at Regent's Park, London, on 25 April 1896, the son of Harry Waddy, a member of the London Stock Exchange. Educated at Cheltenham College from 1910-13, he crossed the Channel to France a short while later in order to improve his language skills. His life at this time was carefully detailed by The Evening Sentinel on 30 August 1934:
'At the outbreak of the war, he was in France, studying French, and, with a patriotism that was typical of his character, he at once joined the French Army as a private.'

With the declaration of war on 29 July 1914, a call was made for foreigners residing in France to support their adopted country. While many would have preferred direct enlistment in the regular French Army, the only option immediately available was that of the Foreign Legion. On 3 August 1914 a reported 8,000 volunteers applied to enlist in the Paris recruiting office of the Legion. The speed of the German Advance in accordance with the Schlieffen Plan caught the French Army heavily by surprise, not least the enemy proximity to Paris in early September 1914. Detailing every available man to the defence of the city and famously utilising over 600 taxicabs to carry soldiers from Les Invalides to Nanteuil-le-Haudouin, some fifty kilometres away, the German sweep was halted - something which the French later termed 'The Miracle on the Marne'. With the front temporarily stabilised, Waddy returned to England and was appointed to a commission in the Bedfordshire Regiment on 11 May 1915. 

Posted to France from 7 July 1915 with the 1st Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, Waddy arrived in the aftermath of the defence of Hill 60 - likely as a replacement - and was later moved south in defence of the Somme. In 1916, the 1st Battalion witnessed heavy action at High Wood and Guillemont and took part in the Battles of Morval and Le Transloy. Transferred to the 7th Battalion, Waddy was mentioned in the Battalion war diary of 5 October 1917 during practise exercises near Irish Farm and Canal Bank, in preparation for his unit going into the line during the Battle of Passchendaele. The war diary later adds: 'The mud was very bad and duck-boards few. The men suffered considerably from cold and wet. The line consisted of shell holes filled with water.' 

Keen to leave the life of an infantryman, Waddy transferred to the Royal Flying Corps on 5 February 1918 and was posted to 21 Squadron. Qualifying Temporary 2nd Lieutenant (Observer) 5 April 1918, he was sent to Armaments School at R.A.F. Uxbridge for Pilot training; the war subsequently ended before Waddy had the opportunity to take on the Luftwaffe and he relinquished his commission on 9 February 1919 after taking employment as managing director of T. R. Boote Ltd, Waterloo Potteries (Tile Manufacturers), Burslem. 

Married to a local girl in 1918, Waddy soon became a popular and successful industrialist. Appointed Lieutenant in the 5th Battalion, North Staffordshire Regiment (Territorial Army) on 28 December 1928, he was placed in the command of "C" (Burslem) Company and set up home at Standon House, Standon. Beset by a sudden illness, Waddy died a few years later at the North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary on 29 August 1934, his loss much lamented by his family and workforce of over 250 people: 'He was a soldier of ability and a man of understanding, and he has helped, by his knowledge, fairness and grit, to keep the flag flying' (The recipient's obituary, refers). 

Waddy's premature death at the age of 38 years proved the first of many tragedies for his family; both of his sons died during the Second World War, the first, Midshipman Roger Latham Waddy, R.N.V.R., being killed whilst piloting a swordfish aircraft on a depth-charge practice sortie on 16 July 1941, the second, Major Alexander Peter Harry Waddy, being killed in action at Arnhem on 18 September 1944 whilst leading "B" Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Parachute Brigade, in an attempt to destroy a panzer using a 'Gammon' bomb. 

Sold with copied R.A.F. Service Record, newspaper entries, and a photographic image of the recipient in officer’s uniform.