Orders, Decorations and Medals

An unusual and well-documented Second World War and post-war campaign service group of six awarded to Wing Commander D. K. Kempston, Royal Air Force, who was awarded the Lebanese Order of the Cedar for services in the R.A.F. Mission to that nation in the early 1950s

1939-45 Star; Burma Star; Defence and War Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf; General Service 1918-62, 2 clasps, S.E. Asia 1945-46, Malaya (Act. Flt. Lt., R.A.F.); Lebanese Order of the Cedar, Chevalier’s breast badge, silver, silver-gilt and enamel, together with a set of related miniature dress medals, the Lebanese piece with chipped enamel work in places, otherwise generally good very fine (12) £600-700

Denis Keogh Kempston, who was born in Blackburn in June 1919, entered the Royal Air Force as a Halton Apprentice in January 1936. Appointed a Leading Aircraftman 1st Class in December 1938, he was nominated to be a student of the Royal Aeronautical Society in the same year, and was serving as a L.A.C. in ‘A’ Flight, No. 78 Squadron, on the outbreak of hostilities.

Equipped with Whitleys, No. 78 went operational at Linton-on-Ouse in July 1940, and judging by an accompanying photograph and Air Gunner’s Brevet, it seems likely Kempston was among those L.A.Cs who successfully applied for temporary aircrew duties. In September 1941 he was promoted to Sergeant and, on leaving No. 78 Squadron in January 1942, studied for a commission in the Technical Branch, being appointed an Acting Pilot Officer in October 1942 and posted to No. 22 Operational Training Unit at Lossiemouth in the following month. Here he remained employed until October 1944, being elected a graduate of the Royal Aeronautical Society in April 1943 and advanced to Acting Flight Lieutenant in May 1944. But it was most probably for his next posting as O.C. of No. 240 T.U. at Honeybourne in Worcestershire, where he served from late 1944 until June 1945, that he was mentioned in despatches (London Gazette 14 June 1945). Kempston’s next appointment was with the S.E.A.A.F., with whom he served briefly on the Burma front in 184 Wing prior to the end of hostilities. Kempston remained employed as a Technical Officer in the same theatre of operations until late 1947, completing assorted flights in Dakotas, Sunderlands and Yorks in the same period.

The R.A.F. Mission to the Lebanese Air Force

Between June 1951 and April 1953, Squadron Leader Kempston was one of four R.A.F. officers that served in the R.A.F. Mission in Lebanon, a highly sensitive assignment that witnessed the delivery of six Vampires - and saw him working alongside ex-Axis pilots in training and organising the nascent Lebanese Air Force. The situation in the Middle East was viewed as extremely unstable and a potential powderkeg following the Arab-Israeli war in 1948 and the British Government decided to assist in building up the Lebanese Air Force that was established in 1949 four years after the creation of that country. This was a highly secret assignment, so much so that some of the papers related to the R.A.F. Mission are still classified. The four British officers served alongside four Italian Air Force officers, all of whom had flown in the Second War, and two ex-Luftwaffe pilots that had fought on the Eastern Front. Their time in Lebanon saw the passing out of the first four Lebanese pilots and the delivery of the above mentioned Vampires, thus establishing the country's first bomber squadron. For his period in Lebanon, Kempston was awarded the Chevalier’s grade of the Order of the Cedar for his ‘valuable services in connection with the training and organisation of the Lebanese Air Force’ (London Gazette 25 May 1954 refers). He, and three other R.A.F. officers were given Royal permission to wear the decoration.

His final stint of active service was out in the Malaya theatre of operations in 1957-59, when he appears at onetime to have been attached to the R.N.Z.A.F. Latterly employed by the British Aircraft Corporation (B.A.C.), Kempston also served as an Honorary Secretary of the Preston Branch of the Royal Aeronautical Society until January 1980.

Sold with a quantity of original documentation, including M.I.D. certificate, in the name of ‘A./Flight Lieutenant D. K. Kempston, Royal Air Force’, dated 14 June 1945; the warrant for his Lebanese Order of the Cedar, in the name of ‘Squadron Leader Denis Kempston’, decree 908/C of 18 December 1953, together with related Air Ministry forwarding letter and Royal “Permission to Wear” warrant, dated at St. James’s, 7 May 1954; his R.A.F. Pilot’s Flying Log Book, covering the period January 1946 to June 1967, and subsequent entries for B.A.C. 1971-74, the front page bearing an official endorsement, ‘Previous Log Book with all records of flying times up to June 1945 lost in Burma in July 1945. No flying carried out between July-December 1945’; his commission warrant for the rank of Acting Pilot Officer, dated 20 October 1942; his U.K. Passport 1951-56, including Lebanese Visa and numerous stamps from that authority, in addition to Syria and Jordan; a small selection of career photographs, including portrait image in flying kit, the reverse dated ‘September, 1939’ and a group portrait taken by a Savoia Marcetti (SM 79) at Rayak, Lebanon in 1953, including Kempston; a typed career summary on H.Q. Air Command Far East notepaper, 4pp., and covering his appointments 1935 to 1947; and two or three membership cards, including R.A.F. Halton Aircraft Apprentices Association, dated 31 March 1995; together with a Lebanese flag, edged in gilt tassels, and a large quantity of uniform, comprising his R.A.F. officer’s tunic, battledress and full-dress tunic (with waistcoat), all bearing Wing Commander’s rank insignia, his greatcoat, trousers (3) and shirt, and peaked cap; and assorted buttons, badges and epaulettes, etc., among the last a full-dress gilt-woven Air Gunner’s brevet.