Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Southern Desert, Iraq (F/L. L. I. Hyder. R.A.F.) mounted as originally worn, good very fine £700-£900

Dix Noonan Webb, June 2008.

Leslie Ingham Hyder, who qualified as a M.R.C.S. and L.R.C.P. at King’s College Hospital in London in 1923, was commissioned in the Royal Air Force as a Medical Officer in the rank of Flying Officer in July 1926. Posted to the General Hospital at Hinaidi, Iraq in December 1926, he subsequently transferred as M.O. to No. 84 Squadron, also in Iraq, in July 1928, thereby qualifying for his rare General Service Medal. Back home, he was advanced to Flight Lieutenant in August 1929, following which he was posted as M.O. to No. 6 Squadron in Ismailia, Egypt, in the rank of Squadron Leader, in January 1934, in which theatre he served until at least 1937, latterly being stationed at R.A.F. Helipolis.

Hyder was still serving as a Wing Commander on the outbreak of hostilities in 1939 and was finally placed on the Retired List in July 1946. Thereafter, he appears to have returned to King’s College Hospital with an appointment as a House Surgeon in the Eye Department.