Orders, Decorations and Medals

The original grant of the squadron badge for ‘No. 220 G. R. Squadron’, hand-illuminated badge and motto, as painted by an artist of the College of Arms, dated August 1940, and signed by the Chester Herald and Inspector of Royal Air Force Badges, J. Heaton-Armstrong, and H.M. King George VI, mounted on card, in excellent condition £100-150

No. 220 Squadron was formed at Imbros in September 1918 for fighter and reconnaissance duties over the Aegean, and flew operationally in Camels of No. 62 Wing against the Turks until disbanded in December 1918. Reformed at Bircham Newton in August 1936, as a general reconnaissance unit equipped with Ansons, the Squadron was based at Thornaby by the renewal of hostilities in September 1939 and flew anti-submarine and shipping patrols off the Dutch coast and elsewhere from May 1940 until April 1941, when it was moved to Scotland to concentrate on similar duties off Norway. Re-equipped with Fortresses, No. 220 was next employed in Northern Ireland, but removed to Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides in March 1943, and thence to the Azores, where it re-equipped with Liberators for anti-submarine duties over the South Atlantic, and remained so employed until the War’s end. No. 220 was disbanded in May 1946, but reformed as a maritime reconnaissance unit at Kinloss in September 1951, before being disbanded for a final time in 1963.