A Pair of Edwardian Royal Warwickshire Regiment Silver Presentation Menu Holders with inscription to W.C.C. Gell

Air Vice Marshal W.C.C. Gell, C.B., D.S.O. & Bar, M.C., T.D., D.L.,  (10 July 1888-1969)

Educated at Cambridge University, William Charles Coleman Gell was born in 1888 and  served throughout the First World War with the Royal Warwickshire Regiment rising to the command of the 5th/6th Battalion in France and Flanders in  May 1917, having been wounded on the Somme the previous year. He was awarded the Military Cross in January 1917 and the Distinguished Service Order in 1918 with a second award gazetted in 1919. After the war he practiced as a solicitor in Birmingham, and in 1935 joined the Anti Aircraft Service (T.A.). On the formation of the R.A.F.’s Balloon Command in 1938 he transferred to the Auxilary Air Force and by September 1940 was helping to impede the incursions of Nazi air fleets into British air space as a Group Captain with No.5 Balloon Centre. In July 1941 he was advanced to A.O.C. No. 30 (Balloon) Group and thence to the top job of Air Officer Commanding Balloon Command in February 1944, finally resigning his commission, but retaining his rank, on 26 March 1945.

In 1968 the Royal Warwicks, which were redesignated Fusiliers in 1963, were absorbed into the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.