Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Four: Warrant Officer B. K. McGowan, Royal Air Force, who flew operationally in the Far East as an Air Gunner in Catalinas
1939-45 Star, the reverse privately inscribed, ‘1668530 W./O. B. K. McGowan, R.A.F.’; Atlantic Star; Burma Star, clasp, Pacific; War Medal 1939-45, mounted as worn, good very fine, the third scarce (4) £200-250

McGowan commenced training as an Air Gunner in November 1943, qualifying at the end of the year as a ‘steady type but must improve in the air.’ Three months later he commenced his long association with Catalinas at an O.T.U., and in July 1944 he joined No. 191 Squadron out in India, participating in a number of convoy escorts and anti-submarine patrols later in the year. By this stage he was often acting as 2nd Engineer. Moving with the Squadron to Ceylon in April 1945, where he also flew in Dakotas and Liberators, McGowan joined his final posting, in Mombasa, in August of the same year.

Sold with the recipient’s original Flying Log Book, covering the period of his training from November 1943 through to his final appointment in a Catalina unit in Mombasa in July 1946.