Three: Lieutenant E. C. Brown, Royal Air Force, late Royal Engineers, Army Service Corps, Royal West Kent Regiment and Royal Flying Corps, who was killed in action in October 1918

1914-15 Star (2 Lieut. E. C. Brown, A.S.C.); British War and Victory Medals (Lieut. E. C. Brown, R.A.F.), good very fine (3) £300-350

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals to the R.F.C. and R.A.F. from the Collection Formed by the Late Squadron Leader David Haller.

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Edward Cecil Brown was born at Mussenden House, Horton Kirby, Kent, in October 1894, the son of William and Margaret Brown (nee Larke), and was educated at Dartford Grammar School.

Enlisting in the Royal Engineers in October 1914, he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Army Service Corps in April 1915 and entered the Egypt theatre of war that October. Subsequently actively employed in Salonika in assorted M.T. Companies, he was admitted to hospital in Malta with malaria in September 1916.

Having then returned to duty in the U.K. in early 1917, he gained appointment as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal West Kent Regiment but by the year’s end was serving as a Flight Cadet in the Royal Flying Corps. Duly gaining his “Wings” he joined No. 85 Squadron and was embarked for France in May 1918, in which capacity he made a forced landing in his S.E. 5 on 13 July, owing to the fact his propeller had been shot away. He was killed in action when his aircraft was brought down by A.A. fire on 18 October. He is buried in Busigny Communal Cemetery Extension, south-west of Le Cateau; sold with a file of research.