Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Second World War fighter pilot’s campaign group of three awarded to Flight Lieutenant E. Dickinson, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, who flew operationally in the Middle East from August 1941 until his death in action in May 1942, latterly alongside the likes of Billy Drake and Neville Duke in No. 112 “Shark” Squadron, claiming two enemy aircraft destroyed and another damaged

1939-45 Star; Africa Star; War Medal 1939-45, with original Air Ministry condolence slip in the name of ‘Flight Lieutenant E. Dickinson’, and related badges (4), including a rare cast-metal “Flying Boot Club” membership badge, the whole contained in a glazed display frame, extremely fine (Lot) £700-900

Eric Dickinson enlisted in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve at Uxbridge in early 1940 and was commissioned as a Pilot Officer on gaining his “Wings” in April 1941.

Posted to No. 126 Squadron, a Hurricane unit operating out of Malta, in June 1941, he claimed an MC 200 near Pozzallo on 26 August before being posted to No. 112 “Shark” Squadron, flying Tomahawks, and later Kittyhawks, in the Western Desert, in early December 1941. Shortly afterwards, on the 12th, in what his relevant combat report describes as a ‘violent dogfight’, he claimed an MC 202 damaged south of Tmimi - ‘I turned inside one and saw a flash inside his fuselage and he dived away’. While on 14 February 1942, in what the “Sharks” afterwards referred to as the ‘St. Valentine’s Day Massacre’, he delivered a devastating astern quarter attack against an MC 200 which turned into ‘a sheet of flame at 1.000 feet’. Here, then, two recorded combats in a relentless period of operational flying, much of which is described in Neville Duke’s published wartime diaries - including mention of Dickinson; while other published sources also contain frequent mention of Dickinson in action, not least after his elevation to Flight Commander - thus plenty of ground-strafing work in addition to air-to-air combat, including a daring strike against Tmimi airfield with “Billy” Drake in May 1942. At the end of the latter month, however, Dickinson was shot down and killed by a 109, just 24 hours after qualifying for membership of the Flying Boot Club on returning to his base after being downed by flak on the 27th.

The son of Alec and Mary Dickinson of Liverpool, he was 22 years of age and is buried in Knightsbridge War Cemetery, Acroma, Libya.

Sold with a comprehensive file of research, including a quantity of original wartime photographs (approximately 30 images from 112 Squadron days), and a “blood chit” in Arabic; together with original correspondence with Neville Duke, in which the famous fighter ace states, ’Dicky and I were close friends during our time together in 112 and, of course, I have the happiest memories of him both in flying operations and our forays to Cairo on leave ... by all accounts he should have been awarded the D.F.C.’, a letter dated 18 August 2000 refers; signed photographs of Duke and “Billy” Drake, Tangmere Museum first day cover commemorating Duke’s record flight in a Hunter in 1951, and a print of his Kittyhawk.