Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Second War M.B.E. group of four awarded to Squadron Officer Phyllis M. de Fraine, Women’s Auxiliary Air Force

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, M.B.E. (Military) Member’s 2nd type, lady’s shoulder badge, silver; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, with M.I.D. oak leaf; Voluntary Medical Service Medal (P. M. de Fraine. M.B.E.) contemporarily engraved naming, edge prepared for naming on last, good very fine (4) £240-£280

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals from the Collection of David Lloyd.

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M.B.E. London Gazette 13 June 1946.

The original Recommendation states: ‘This officer holds the post of Senior Group Women’s Auxiliary Air Force Staff Officer. She has served in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force since 1939 and for the past 20 months as W.A.A.F. Staff Officer at No. 54 Group Headquarters. By her loyalty, strength of character, and high sense of duty, she exercised a fine influence on all Women’s Auxiliary Air Force officers and airwomen in this large Group.’

Phyllis Margaret de Fraine was born in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, and was educated at Aylesbury Grammar School. Following the outbreak of the Second World War she joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service, before transferring to he Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, and served with them throughout the War. Mentioned in Despatches by Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding (London Gazette 17 March 1941), she was advanced to the rank of Squadron Officer on 1 June 1942, and was awarded the M.B.E.

In later years she served in local politics, as a Conservative councillor on Aylesbury Borough Council, and was for many years a member of the British Red Cross Society, being awarded the Voluntary Medical Service Medal in 1962. She died at Stoke Manderville Hospital on 29 October 1982.

Sold with the recipient’s M.I.D. Certificate, in O.H.M.S. envelope; named Buckingham Palace enclosure for the M.B.E.; and copied research, including a newspaper obituary which includes a photograph of the recipient.