Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A rare B.E.M. for Gallantry pair awarded to Aircraftman Kawilila, Royal Rhodesian Air Force

British Empire Medal, (Military) E.II.R., with gallantry emblem (4685. Aircraftman Kawilila. R. Rhodesian Air Force.); Africa General Service 1902-56, 1 clasp, Kenya (4685. Acfn. Kawilila. S.R.A.F.) last renamed, generally very fine (2) £600-800

B.E.M. London Gazette 22 June 1962:

‘On 22nd November, 1961, a civil Dakota aircraft of Rhodesian Air Services crashed at the Royal Rhodesian Air Force Station, New Sarum. The only occupants of the aircraft were the two pilots who were killed and the air hostess who was injured and rendered unconscious. Aircraftman Kawilila, who was off duty and working nearby in his garden at the time, immediately ran to the aircraft, scaling a high boundary fence en route and was the first person to reach the scene. As a trained fireman, it would have been apparent to him that there was an imminent danger of fire. However, on reaching the aircraft, he discovered the air hostess pinned to the floor beneath a seat in the broken-off section of the fuselage. He entered this section, released the air hostess, and carried her to safety some 40 yards away. He subsequently returned to the aircraft and, together with a Sergeant of the Rhodesia and Nyasaland Medical Corps who had just arrived on the scene, he removed the body of one of the dead pilots. A few minutes later, the Royal Rhodesian Air Force crash fire services arrived and smothered the aircraft with foam. It is considered that by entering the crashed aircraft prior to the arrival of the fire services and in rescuing the air hostess in this period, Aircraftman Kawilila carried out a brave and meritorious act.’