Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Four: Group Captain C. Fothergill, Royal Air Force: assessed as an above average pilot throughout his career, and described as ‘always dapper and sporting a luxuriant moustache’, he instructed the likes of “Ginger” Lacey before embarking on operations in Manchesters of No. 97 Squadron and, after a career spanning some 35 years and 50 aircraft types, including Meteors, he was finally placed on the Retired List in 1960

1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, extremely fine (4) £350-400

Charles Fothergill, who was born in June 1913, was commissioned as a Pilot Officer in August 1934 and qualified for his Wings in August 1935.

Posted to No. 70 (Bomber) Squadron at Hinaidi in Iraq, in the following month, he flew Victoria and Valencia aircraft until returning to the U.K. in late 1937, a period which encompassed several aircraft searches, including one for a missing Horsa of Imperial Airways in late August 1936 - it was subsequently found in the Arabian Desert by a pilot from No. 84 Squadron and the passengers and crew were safely evacuated.

Back in the U.K., Fothergill attended assorted courses, including one at the Central Flying School, prior to being appointed an instructor at No. 6 F.T.S. at Little Rossington, Gloucestershire in October 1938, but with the advent of hostilities in September 1939, he was ordered to join No. 501 Squadron at R.A.F. Filton. Here, as evidenced by his relevant Flying Book, he took under his wing as instructor numerous future Battle of Britain pilots, not least the likes of “Ginger” Lacey, but also those less fortunate, among them Pilot Officer John Bland (killed in action 18 August 1940), Pilot Officer Keith Aldridge (shot down and badly wounded on 24 August 1940), and Pilot Officer Edmund Sylvester (killed in action on 20 July 1940).

Then in February 1940, Fothergill was posted to another F.T.S. in Northern Ireland and thence, in November of the same year, to an O.T.U. at Cottesmore, from which he joined No. No. 97 Squadron, a Manchester unit operating out of Conningsby, in March 1941. Going operational that June, as a 2nd Pilot, with strikes against targets in France and Dusseldorf, he also flew as Captain of Aircraft on a raid against Magdeburg on 14 August. He was then ordered to take command of No. 207 Squadron at Bottesford, from whence he carried out a brace of “Gardening” trips in February 1942.

Later in the year he removed to an appointment in No 41 Group and he remained similarly employed on instructional duties until the War’s end, while in December 1945, after joining No. 617 Squadron, he was ordered to South-East Asia Command, the Squadron participating in a Victory Week fly past over Delhi before returning to the U.K. in April 1946. But Fothergill was once more ordered overseas with an appointment in No. 31 Squadron at Palam that September, where, among other duties, he transported refugees in the unit’s Dakotas.

With the disbandment of No. 31 Squadron at the end of 1947, he joined Air H.Q., B.A.F.O., as a Wing Commander, from which date his flying hours became more intermittent, not least because of appointments such as R.A.F. Selection Board at Cranwell. But in September 1954, he mastered the age of jets, going solo in a Meteor IV. Then from April 1956 to July 1960, he served as Air Attache at Belgrade, in which latter year he was placed on the Retired List as a Group Captain.

Sold with a complete run of the recipient’s original R.A.F. Flying Log Books (5), comprising Form 414 types covering the periods April to November 1934, with some additional pencilled notes / entries from the 1939-45 War; November 1934 to January 1936; January 1936 to February 1937; and larger format Type 414s covering the periods March 1937 to December 1940 and January 1941 to November 1958, generally in good condition; together with a fine run of R.A.F. publicity photographs for the launch of the Manchester bomber, including images of the recipient and his 97 Squadron crew.