Reginald Graveley, GC

**Dartnelljones** · 19th January 2023, 11:23

Does anyone have information on this RAF officer? He was awarded the Empire Gallantry Medal for an action in September 1939 and exchanged this for a George Cross in September 1941. There is an entry in the London Gazette on 23 March 1943 that says he was 'dismissed the Service by sentence of General Court Martial, 5 March 1943'.
I have looked at the National Archive and have been unable to find information about the offence that led to his dismissal (perhaps I haven't looked in the right places).
With him being the holder of the GC, one would think he had some currency to help him during his Court Martial, so his offence must have been pretty egregious. Does anyone know what he did that was so wrong?
There is a short biography of him on the website vconline.org.uk that says he relinquished his RAF commission but this seems to be a polite way of putting it when compared to the notice in the London Gazette.
Any information appreciated.
Thanks

**wwrsimon** · 19th January 2023, 11:54

His dismissal was widely reported in the newspapers on March 24th 1943, but none of them give any details of the reason why, they just quote the announcement in the London Gazette. No follow-up articles either, as far as I can see.

Regards

Simon

**Dartnelljones** · 19th January 2023, 13:07

Originally Posted by wwrsimon

His dismissal was widely reported in the newspapers on March 24th 1943, but none of them give any details of the reason why, they just quote the announcement in the London Gazette. No follow-up articles either, as far as I can see.

Regards

Simon

Thanks, Simon, for a speedy response. The information about his court martial might not be out there based on what you say about reports made at the time, but I will wait and see if any other members come up with anything. I appreciate your interest.

**jonny** · 19th January 2023, 20:51

This officer was tried by GCM at RAF Benson on 25 January 1943. He was tried on 2 counts of theft, for which he was found not guilty. He was found guilty of 1 count of Section 5 and 1 count of Section 40 (Conduct to Prejudice of Discipline) of the AFA. Section 40 is a lengthy section and covers 9 individual offences, all of which are different (spreading alarm or despondency, communicating with the enemy, negligently or wilfully causing damage to property). It is unclear what specific sub section he was found guilty of.

Rgds

Jonny

**Dartnelljones** · 20th January 2023, 11:49

Hi
I sent a thanks on the forum but wanted to follow up with a reply to thank you again for the information. As you say there are still some loose ends but the GCM obviously had a lot they wanted to use on him. Section 40 seems to be a 'catch all' but the offences you gave as examples are all quite serious sounding so he must have done something bad. I will keep checking the forum in case anyone else comes up with something. May I ask you where you obtained the information you gave me? I tried looking for CM records at the National Archives but couldn't find anything.

**paulmcmillan** · 20th January 2023, 14:28

Jonny out of interest what does Section 5 cover ? thanks

Wednesday 20th September 1939
88 SQUADRON Battle K9242. Severely damaged by Bf109s during reconnaissance
sortie over the German frontier and crashlanded on fire. Probably that claimed over
Bitsch 10.46 a.m. by Lt Liedke of 5JJG 53.
Flying Officer Reginald Cubitt Graveley #39315 badly burned evacuated to RAF Halton Hospital. Sergeant
William Stanley Everett #563100 severely injured: leg amputated but died same dav. AC1 David Joshua John #531085
killed. Aircraft a write-off.

**jonny** · 20th January 2023, 20:14

It is unlikely that you will find the records for his CM. I fear they have all been destroyed, however, there may be something on his service record. I found the information in the RAF CM Register at TNA (Kew).

**PeteS** · 21st January 2023, 13:40

I have recently been working my way through the service records of an RAF officer who was cashiered following court martial, no specific court martial papers but many refernces on his records.. His case was interesting in that he was a former soldier decorated for gallantry in the 1914-18 war who enlisted in the RAF in 1939 "to fly" and was trained and commissioned as an Air Gunner. Part way through his tour of Ops which began in 1940 as a Wellington rear gunner he was injured in a crash sufficiently badly that he was unable to resume flying and transferred eventually to Admin & Special Duties Branch where he became a bomber Squadron Adjutant fulfilling this role with several squadrons highly successfully, being regarded as fatherly, outspoken, popular and very efficient. Transferred later in the war to a bigger but less enemy facing unit he was trained as Transport Officer and quite quickly got into trouble for miss-use of petrol in wartime, miss-use of service vehicles and similar. I understand that over the years he'd been allowing aircrew going on leave to have a little extra petrol in their own vehicles to get them home, he'd allowed others who lived more locally to borrow a vehicle over night to nip home if they were not on Battle Orders or similar. Apparently this was sufficient to end his service.
Cheers
PeteS

**Dartnelljones** · 6th February 2023, 15:44

A late reply to you. Your case is interesting and I guess shows that having received a gallantry award did not offer much protection from court martial.