A Fine Collection of Medals to Officers Who Died During The Two World Wars

Three: Squadron Leader F. G. R. Thomas, No. 40 Squadron, Royal Air Force, who was killed in August 1940 when his Blenheim bomber was lost without trace on active operations

1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star; War Medal, with named Air Council condolence slip (Squadron Leader F. G. R. Thomas), Ministry of Pensions illuminated memorial scroll (Squadron Leader, Royal Air Force), and the Defence & War Medals awarded to his wife, Mrs Irene Thomas, Writer, W.R.N.S., extremely fine (5) £300-350

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Fine Collection of Medals to Officers Who Died During The Two World Wars.

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Frank George Ralph Thomas was the son of Frank and Alice Florence Georgina Thomas, and husband of Irene Dorothy Thomas, of Walton-on-Thames, Surrey. He was commissioned as Temporary Acting Pilot Officer in the Royal Air Force on 1 November 1935, and was subsequently a Swordfish pilot with 213 Squadron aboard Furious. After the outbreak of war he was posted as Squadron Leader to No. 40 Squadron at Wyton, flying Blenheim IV bombers. On the night of 25th/26th August he took off from Wyton on a mission to bomb an airfield at Querqueville but his aircraft disappeared without trace. Squadron Leader Thomas and his two crew members are commemorated by name on the Runnymede Memorial.

The lot is sold with a large quantity of original documentation, including his R.A.F. Commission as Temp. Acting Pilot Officer; Air Ministry Telegram informing of his being ‘reported missing as the result of air operations on 26th August 1940’; numerous letters to his parents and to his girlfriend and, later, wife, including one written just three days before his death; another letter from his parents, dated 24th August, and returned by the Air Ministry ‘P4 Cas Missing’; W.R.N.S. Certificate of Service for his wife; R.A.F. and F.A.A. cap badges; two R.A.F. wings, one of an unusual early pattern; news cuttings, and numerous certificates of Births, Deaths, and Marriages, etc., relating to both his and his wife’s familiy.