A post-war civil O.B.E. group of three awarded to S. R. Campion, a Principal Information Officer at the G.P.O., late Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Civil) Officer’s 2nd type breast badge; British War and Victory Medals (109136 2 A.M. S. R. Campion, R.A.F.), good very fine and better (3) £150-200

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Awards to the R.F.C., R.N.A.S. and R.A.F..

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O.B.E. London Gazette 1 June 1953.


Sydney Ronald Campion was born at Coalville, Leicestershire in June 1891 and enlisted in the Royal Flying Corps as an Air Mechanic 2nd Class in November 1917. Subsequently employed out in France with H.Q. 8th Brigade from January until September 1918, he was discharged in April 1920. Later still, according to various sources, he became an artist, sculptor, journalist, author, barrister and schoolmaster, in addition to his duties in the General Post Office, where he served as Principal Information Officer of the Press and Broadcast Division from 1940 until his retirement in 1957 (O.B.E.). His published works included Only the Stars Remain (1946), in which he touches upon his experiences in the Great War:

‘I left Chorley in 1917 a mightily vigorous young man supremely confident of returning from the War unchanged. I came back early in 1919 a broken creature. Instead of walking with ease and speed, I slouched along as if overwhelmed with weariness. Where I used to be active and challenging I was now tired and indifferent. My dark eyes no longer flashed light and fight: they were dull and expressionless. Once square-shouldered and upright, I was now round-shouldered and stooping.’

Campion, who was also a F.R.S.A., died in 1978; sold with a copy of Only the Stars Remain, together with brief research.