Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A quantity of original documentation appertaining to Air Commodore P. E. Warcup, C.B.E., Royal Air Force, comprising letters covering the period 1957 to 1963 (16), telegrams (4), a copy of the recommendation for his C.B.E., and his Instrument Rating Cards (Green, dated 10 April 1959 and White, dated 28 September 1960), much of the correspondence from officers of Air Rank, generally in good condition (Lot) £40-60

Philip Edmund Warcup, who was born in July 1915 and was educated at Caldy Grange Grammar School, entered the Royal Air Force as a Halton Apprentice in 1931. Having then attended Cranwell, he was posted to No. 54 Squadron at Hornchurch in 1936, where he was still serving at the outbreak of hostilities. In May 1940, however, he was ordered to join No. 1 Squadron out in France, and was shot down in one of the Squadron’s Hurricanes in the following month, and taken P.O.W. Originally held at Stalag Luft I at Barth, where he assisted in three tunnel escape attempts, he was moved to Stalag Luft III, scene of the “Great Escape”, in April 1942, and was once more involved in a tunnel escape attempt (his official P.O.W. debrief refers). He was mentioned in despatches.

Warcup’s post-war career included appointments as a Senior Personnel Staff Officer in No. 205 Group in the Canal Zone, 1950-53, for which he was awarded the O.B.E., and Officer Commanding R.A.F. Kuala Lumpur 1957-59, for which he was awarded the C.B.E. He was placed on the Retired List as an Air Commodore in November 1963.