Orders, Decorations and Medals

A rare Great War A.F.M. awarded to Sergeant Mechanic Observer E. L. Brown, Royal Air Force, late Royal Naval Air Service, an ex-Armoured Cars’ rating who saw extended service in seaplane units 1915-18, latterly with No. 234 Squadron at Tresco in the Scillies

Air Force Medal, G.V.R. (201137 Sergt. Mech. Obs. Brown, E. L., R.A.F.) lacquered, very fine £1600-1800

A.F.M. London Gazette 8 February 1919.

Edmund Leigh Brown, who was born in Edmonton, London in July 1891 and a motor mechanic by trade, was appointed a Petty Officer Mechanic in the Royal Naval Air Service in October 1914 - his service record has endorsements for services in land operations and his R.A.F. record refers to him as ‘Ex-Armoured Cars’. But from September 1915 until November 1917, he was employed at the seaplane testing base on the Isle of Grain, gaining appointment as a Leading Mechanic (E.) in the same period. Having then served briefly at R.N.A.S. Eastchurch, he removed in December 1917 to the seaplane base at Tresco in the Scillies, at which establishment he was taken on the strength of No. 234 Squadron on the establishment of the Royal Air Force in April 1918, and in which capacity he served until October 1918, when temporarily granted the rank of Sergeant Mechanic Observer - 234 was charged with carrying out anti-submarine patrols in the Western Approaches. Gazetted for his A.F.M. in the New Year, Brown was transferred to the R.A.F. Reserve in March 1919 and discharged in April 1920.