Five: attributed to Flying Officer J. E. M. Wilson, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, who was killed in action serving as an Air Gunner in a Liberator of No. 358 (Special Duties) Squadron in the Far East in February 1945 - and subsequently awarded a posthumous Croix de Guerre

1939-45 Star; Burma Star, clasp, Pacific; Defence and War Medals; French Croix de Guerre 1939, with star riband fitment, the first four privately inscribed in “Boots-style”, ‘F./O. J. Wilson, No. 358 Sqn., R.A.F.’, nearly extremely fine (5) £100-120

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Awards to the R.F.C. and R.A.F. formed by Wing Commander Bill Traynor.

View
Collection

John Edward Malcolm Wilson was appointed a Pilot Officer in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in November 1943, sometime thereafter joining No. 358 (Special Duties) Squadron at Jessore, near Calcutta, as an Air Gunner / Wireless Operator. Equipped with Liberators, the Squadron was charged with undertaking hazardous supply missions to special forces behind enemy lines, among them French troops engaged against the Japanese in Indo-China - the latter operations no doubt contributing to Wilson’s award of the Croix de Guerre in September 1945. And it was on just such a mission to Northern French Indo-China on 20 February 1945, that his Liberator failed to return, last being seen entering cloud in a mountainous area. As it transpired, French troops found the aircraft’s ‘smashed and partly burnt’ wreckage north-west of Bao Ha a few days later, together with four bodies, one of which was identified as that of 21 year old Wilson. He is buried in the Kranji War Cemetery, Singapore.