An Air Efficiency Award to Squadron Leader N. P. Kerr, D.F.C., A.F.C.,

Air Efficiency Award, G.VI.R., 1st issue (Act. Flt. Lt. N. P. Kerr, R.A.F.V.R.), mounted for display with assorted uniform insignia and a Pathfinder’s Badge, extremely fine £180-220

Norman Paterson Kerr was commissioned into the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve as a Pilot Officer in December 1941, more or less direct from his previous duties as a Flight Sergeant in No. 214 Squadron, a Wellington unit in which he had completed a full tour of operations as pilot (and 2nd pilot) between July 1940 and January 1941, including four trips to Berlin.

Quickly advanced to Flying Officer, he was mentioned in despatches in January 1943 and awarded the A.F.C. in June of the same year, both distinctions being in respect of his services as an instructor at No. 20 Operational Training Unit, latterly in the rank of Flight Lieutenant.

In February 1944, Kerr returned to the operational scene on volunteering to join No. 139 Squadron, a Path Finder Force unit operating in Mosquitos out of Cambridgeshire, and subsequently completed another 30 sorties, no less than seven of them to the “Big City”. He was advanced to Squadron Leader and awarded the D.F.C. (London Gazette 16 August 1944), to which latter distinction he added his Air Efficiency Award in March 1945.