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Flight Lieutenant Timothy Edward TROTT - RAF Odiham

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Is he an ex AAC chap?

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Queen’s Gallantry Medal (QGM)

Sergeant Rachael Louise ROBINSON, Royal Air Force

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Winch woman Sergeant Rachael Robinson was a member of the crew of Rescue 169, the duty RAF search and rescue helicopter from A Flight, 22 Squadron, called to rescue a crewman from a 25 metre French fishing vessel, “Alf” in the Irish Sea on Thursday 21st March 2013. The crewman had serious head injuries and his condition was deteriorating.

The Alf was pitching and rolling violently, climbing and descending vertically 40 feet with each swell and rolling violently. The 35 knot wind whipped up spray and the sheeting rain further hampered visibility. The Alf’s captain spoke very little English, so a 3 way translation service was arranged via satellite phone involving English and French Coastguards and the crew of Rescue 169 to brief the French captain about how the RAF helicopter crew intended to get the crewman off the fishing boat.

Winch woman Robinson made 6 separate, hazardous descents on the winch-wire in an attempt to reach the Alf’s tiny deck. So violent were the seas that Rachael was repeatedly snatched from the heaving deck as the boat plunged into wave troughs faster than the winch cable could be paid out.

After three winching attempts, the Sea King was running out of fuel, so a swift refuel was arranged at Haverfordwest to prepare for a second attempt. It took three further attempts before Flight Lieutenant ‘Taff’ Wilkins – the Sea King’s captain – eventually calculated the lift to the optimum second, climbing his Sea King as the Alf reached the top of a swell, plucking Rachael and the casualty clear of the deck. The casualty was treated en-route for head injuries and hypothermia and was taken to Swansea Moriston Hospital. It was entirely due to the actions of the crew of rescue 169 and Rachael Robinson’s incredible fortitude that the injured crewman survived.

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During World War I, Acting Captain Francis Victor Wallington of the Royal Field Artillery was the first person to be awarded the MC and three bars when he was invested with his third bar on 10 July 1918 (gazetted 13 September 1918: he had obtained the first three awards as a second lieutenant).[5][6] Three other officers were subsequently awarded a third bar, Percy Bentley, Humphrey Arthur Gilkes and Charles Gordon Timms, all of whose awards were gazetted in a supplement to the London Gazette of 31 January 1919.[5][7]

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Yes. Former Apache QHI.

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Congratulations all round, I read the Gurkha story a while back and I believe they were pushing for a higher award at the time.

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Sergeant Rachael Robinson received a standing ovation from the 670+ people present at the Guild of Air Pilots' Trophies & Awards Banquet held at London's Guildhall on Wednesday evening.

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