The Second World War France 1940 operations D.F.C. group of four awarded to Pilot Officer E. J. H. Sylvester, Auxiliary Air Force, who claimed four victories prior to being killed in action in the Battle of Britain after a combat over Lyme Bay in a Hurricane of No. 501 Squadron: in the interim, he had twice qualified for membership of the Caterpillar Club

Distinguished Flying Cross, G.VI.R., the reverse officially dated ‘1940’ and privately engraved, ‘90556 P./O. E. J. H. Sylvester, R.A.F.’; 1939-45 Star, clasp, Battle of Britain; Air Crew Europe Star; War Medal 1939-45, together with the recipient’s Caterpillar Club membership badge, gold, with “ruby” eyes, the reverse officially inscribed, ‘P./O. J.(sic) Sylvester’ and ‘Pres. by Irving Co.’, virtually as issued (5) £2500-3000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Ron Penhall Collection.

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D.F.C. London Gazette 25 April 1941. The original recommendation states:

‘Between 10 May and 18 June 1940, Pilot Officer Sylvester destroyed at least four enemy aircraft. Through enemy action he was forced to make parachute descents on two occasions; but in spite of this he maintained outstanding coolness and attacked with determination and utter disregard for his own safety.’

The relevant London Gazette entry states ‘deceased’ after the recipient’s name and that the award of his D.F.C. was to be with effect from 27 June 1940.

Edmund John Hilary Sylvester was born at Trowbridge, Wiltshire in January 1914 and was educated at Harrow. Joining the Auxiliary Air Force, he was commissioned as a Pilot Officer in No. 501 (County of Gloucester) Squadron in January 1939 and mobilised in August of the same year.

He subsequently witnessed extensive action out in France between 10 May and 18 June 1940, when 501 numbered among its ranks a Flight Sergeant J. H. “Ginger” Lacey and was commanded in the air by Squadron Leader (later Air Vice-Marshal) H. A. V. Hogan. Surviving entries from the Squadron’s Operational Record Book (O.R.B.) reveal the following facts:

12 May 1940: Sylvester claimed a Do. 17 and a He. III 30 miles N.E. of Betheniville.

24 May 1940: Sylvester’s Hurricane was damaged by anti-aircraft fire in a patrol over the Soissons area, returning with a holed fuselage.

25 May 1940: Sylvester was posted missing, one Flight Sergeant saying he saw his Hurricane ‘diving flat out about five miles N.E. of Abbeville’, and a Flight Lieutenant reporting that he may have seen him attacking an anti-aircraft battery, over-boosting in the process, with black smoke pouring from his aircraft. As, however, revealed over the next 24 hours, Sylvester had in fact badly damaged a Do. 17 in a combat over Dieppe at 15,000 feet, prior to being compelled to make a forced-landing after being hit by A.A. fire - ‘The wooden fuselage formers and stringer were found to have been shot away aft of the pilot’s seat’, as had the back locker.

27 May 1940: Sylvester claimed an enemy aircraft ‘almost for certain’ over the Abacourt area.

Here then, most likely, the four destroyed aircraft referred to in the recommendation for his D.F.C., although 501’s O.R.B. is far from complete for this period. It does not, for example, refer to Sylvester’s brace of parachute descents as a result of combats, but these are confirmed in the Irving Company’s archives, where his letter of application for membership of the Caterpillar Club survives. Dated at the Officer’s Mess, Croydon on 1 July 1940, and supported by an enclosed endorsement from his C.O., Squadron Leader Hogan, it states that he was compelled to take to his parachute after combats 10 miles S.E. of Dieppe on the 3 June 1940 and 15 miles N.W. of Evreux on the 14th. Interestingly, on the signed endorsement provided by his C.O., Sylvester’s initial is given as ‘J.’, thereby confirming that this was a completely genuine - and contemporary - error.

Back in the U.K., 501 operated out of Croydon, the O.R.B. once again revealing Sylvester participating in regular operational sorties, but at 4.30 p.m. on 20 July 1940, the day after the Squadron moved to Warmwell, he was killed in action in a combat over Lyme Bay, his aircraft, Hurricane P3082, falling victim to the guns of Leutnant Zirkenbach of I/JG27.

Sylvester has no known grave and is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.

Sold with three original wartime photographs taken at Tangmere on 8 May 1940, all of them depicting 501 Squadron pilots and two them including Sylvester; and a modern watercolour picture of his Hurricane (P3082) departing Warmwell on 20 July 1940.

Provenance: J. B. Hayward, January 1976 (direct purchase).