A Collection of Medals to Great War Casualties

An emotive Great War pair, together with an extensive archive, awarded to Air Mechanic 1st Class F. Dearing, 20 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps, who was mortally wounded during an aerial combat on the Western Front over Ypres on 26 September 1916, in which he and his pilot succeeded in shooting down an enemy aircraft, before being shot down themselves. Never regaining consciousness, Dearing died of his wounds later that day. He was just 16 years of age - one of the youngest Flying casualties of the Great War

British War and Victory Medals (9882 Pte. F. Dearing. R.F.C.); Memorial Plaque (Frederick Dearing) in card envelope, with Buckingham Palace enclosure; Memorial Scroll, ‘A. Mech. I Frederick Dearing, Royal Flying Corps’; together with the recipient’s card identity tag ‘9882 Dearing F. R.F.C. C.E.’, extremely fine (4) £600-£800

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals to Great War Casualties.

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Provenance: Acquired by the vendor directly from the recipient’s family.

Frederick Dearing was born in Shoreham, Sussex, on 2 March 1900, and attested underage for the Royal Flying Corps at Hove, Sussex, on 9 October 1915, giving his age as 18 years and 196 days. He served with the Royal Flying Corps as part of the British Expeditionary Force during the Great War on the Western Front from 17 January 1916, and was posted to 20 Squadron, with the rank of Air Mechanic 1st Class, on 1 June 1916.

Dearing’s first engagement of note came on 8 September 1916 when, serving as the observer in at F.E. 2D, piloted by Second Lieutenant D. H. Dabbs, they succeeded in shooting down an enemy machine, before being victims themselves: ‘Second Lieutenant Dabbs and Air Mechanic Dearing had just sent an Aviatik two-seater side-slipping into the clouds apparently out of control when their FE was hit by ground fire that sent shrapnel ripping through Dabb’s arm and the FE’s petrol piping ad radiator. The FE rapidly began to lose height but, while Dearing strafed the German trenches 200ft below them, Dabbs was able to glide it back across the lines to a safe forced landing in a field near Fleurbaix. However, this was in full view of a German artillery emplacement whose gunners quickly laid down a barrage of shells all around the grounded machine and Dabbs was hit in the leg by shrapnel and Dearing helped him from the cockpit.

In a letter home, dated 11 September 1916, Dearing wrote of the incident: ‘I have had several trips up in an aeroplane over the lines and I brought a German aeroplane down, and soon after we were brought down ourselves, but fortunately behind our own lines. When I got back to camp one of the chaps told me that I was supposed to be dead and the troops seemed quite surprised to see me on parade and looked at me as though I were a ghost. This happened last Friday and I would have told you about it but I thought you might get the wind up or something.’

However, on 26 September 1916 Dearing’s luck ran out: ‘At 7:30 a.m. Second Lieutenant A. F. Livingstone and Air Mechanic Dearing were patrolling at 12,000 feet near Ypres in F.E. 2D A8 when Livingstone dived on a lone German machine 2,000 feet below them but, as he later recorded in his combat report, he dived too far and found it necessary to go alongside the hostile aircraft in order to regain height. Both machines were firing at each other at this point and, as the FE climbed above the German machine at close range, the enemy observer’s answering free hit both the British flyers, wounding Livingstone in the ankle and Dearing in the neck and head. Livingstone brought the machine down to a successful forced landing just south of Vlamertinghe but it was too late for Dearing, who died shortly afterwards at No. 10 Casualty Clearing Station.’

Dearing’s Commanding Officer, Captain R. Stuart Maxwell, wrote to Dearing’s mother: ‘I am just just writing to tell you the splendid circumstances in which your son received the wound from which he afterwards died. He was acting as gunner observer on the morning of 26 September, when they engaged a German machine in aerial combat. Your son managed to put in such fine shooting that the German machine was sent crashing down just behind his own lines. The pilot, Second Lieutenant Livingstone, was rather badly wounded in the feet almost at the same time that your son was hit, right at the end of the scrap. He brought the machine down at once, however, and your son was in the Doctor’s hands in a very short time. He never regained consciousness, and died in hospital about 1:30 p.m. on the same day. I was very sorry that we were unable to tell him that the German machine was brought down. He was a mere boy, and as game and plucky as any observer I have ever had to do with. It will, I hope, relieve you in your almost unbearable grief to know that he died doing his job as gallantly and as well as any man could, and that those of us who knew him during the last few months looked on him as a really splendid youngster ,who feared nothing and was always ready to undertake any work, however dangerous.’

Second Lieutenant Livingstone also wrote thus: ‘I feel I must write to convey to you my sincere sympathy in the loss you have sustained in the death of your son Frederick. His loss will be deeply regretted in the Squadron as he was a very good and keen observer. It is some satisfaction to know that we succeeded in bringing down the German machine.’

Dearing is buried in Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, Belgium. He was just 16 years of age.

Sold with a large archive of original documents and ephemera, including various letters from the recipient to his mother, and vice versa; various postcards from the recipient to his sister; a selection of R.F.C. Dinner invitations; War Office notification of his death; telegram from the recipient’s mother to her husband (Dearing’s step-father) informing him of Frederick’s death; Imperial War Graves Commission correspondence, including a photograph of the recipient’s original grave; a large number of hand-written and typed letters of condolence to the recipient’s mother, including those from Second Lieutenant Livingstone; postcard photograph of the recipient; various newspaper cuttings; remnants of a R.F.C. cap badge; and copied research.