Caterpillar Club Badge, presented by the Irving Air Chute Company Ltd, gold caterpillar pin brooch with ‘ruby’ eyes (F/O. I. Stephenson. Pres. by Irving Co.) a rare early issue, good very fine £400-500

Wing Commander Ian Raitt Stephenson, No. 153 Squadron, R.A.F.V.R., a former Battle of Britain pilot, was killed in action on 26 November 1943. He was the son of the Revd. Herbert Stephenson, of St Paul’s Manse, South Croydon, and was educated at King’s College School, Wimbledon. He was a member of the London University Air Squadron in 1936-37, and was commissioned into the R.A.F.V.R. in November 1937 and called up on 1 September 1939. He completed his training and was with No. 264 Squadron in early July 1940. On August 26 he was shot down by Bf 109’s and baled out, being rescued from the sea, injured, landed at Herne Bay and admitted to Canterbury Hospital. The Defiant L7025 crashed into the sea two miles off Herne Bay, and the gunner, Sergeant W. Maxwell, was not seen again.

In October 1942 Stephenson was commanding 1529 Beam Approach Training Flight at Wittering. He commanded No. 406 (R.C.A.F.) Squadron at Valley from March to August 1943, forming part of Liverpool’s night defence, and took command of No. 153 Squadron at Reghaia, in Italy, in September. Equipped with Beaufighters, its task was the night defence of the Algiers and Bone sectors and it kept up a good record of enemy aircraft destroyed until July 1943, when it had its first blank month. Whilst most of the North African squadrons went on to the Sicilian campaign, No. 153 remained in North Africa guarding the coastline and the convoys hugging it, maintaining a steady record of destruction against the enemy. Wing Commander Stephenson is commemorated by name on the Malta Memorial, Malta.