A Collection of Awards to the Royal Flying Corps, Royal Naval Air Service and Royal Air Force

A rare Great War M.S.M. group of three awarded to 2nd Lieutenant C. W. Brown, Royal Air Force, late Grenadier Guards and Royal Flying Corps

British War and Victory Medals (2 Lieut. C. W. Brown, R.A.F.); Army Meritorious Service Medal, G.V.R., 1st issue (1087 Fl. Sjt. C. W. Brown, R.F.C.), together with his Grenadier Guards brass nameplate, impressed ‘13106 C. W. Brown’, generally good very fine (4) £300-400

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Awards to the Royal Flying Corps, Royal Naval Air Service and Royal Air Force.

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Collection

A little under 140 awards of the Army M.S.M. to members of the Royal Flying Corps.

Cecil William Brown, who was born in May 1883 and onetime a member of the Grenadier Guards, first went out to France in March 1915, as a Corporal attached to H.Q., Royal Flying Corps - the whereabouts of his 1914-15 Star remains unknown.

Subsequently attached to No. 32 Squadron as an Acting Sergeant-Major, he would have come into contact with a number of distinguished aces, among them Captain A. “Maori” Coningham, D.S.O., M.C., D.F.C., afterwards an Air Marshal and distinguished C.O. of 2nd Tactical Air Force in the 1939-45 War.

For his own part, Brown’s services in No. 32 resulted in his award of the Meritorious Service Medal (London Gazette 4 June 1917 refers), in respect of the following recommendation submitted by Brigadier-General C. A. H. Longcroft in March 1917:

‘For conspicuous good work and devotion to duty. This Warrant Officer by his excellent example and devotion to duty has materially increased the discipline and general efficiency of the Squadron.’

Commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant (Technical) in September 1917, he went on to add a “mention” to his accolades for services in ‘I’ Force in France (London Gazette 3 June 1919 refers), and was released from service in early 1920; sold with a quantity of research, including copied service record.