Orders, Decorations and Medals

The original grant of the squadron badge for ‘No. 228 G. R. Squadron’, hand-illuminated badge and motto, as painted by an artist of the College of Arms, dated February 1941, and signed by the Chester Herald and Inspector of Royal Air Force Badges, J. Heaton-Armstrong, and H.M. King George VI, in excellent condition £100-150

No. 228 Squadron was formed at Great Yarmouth in August 1918 and carried out anti-submarine and reconnaissance patrols over the North Sea and the Dover Straits until disbanded in June 1919. Reformed at Pembroke as a flying boat unit in December 1936, the Squadron was based in Aexandria with Sunderlands by the renewal of hostilities in September 1939, but quickly returned to the U.K. Having then operated out of Sullum Voe and Invergordon, No. 228 returned the Mediterranean theatre of war, initially being based in Malta but later in Alexandria, carrying out reconnaissance work for the Royal Navy and assisting in the evacuation of troops from Greece in April 1941. That June, the Squadron moved to West Africa, but as a result of a shortage of aircraft was ordered home to Stranraer, and thence to Oban and Lough Erne, operational patrols commencing in March 1942. And No. 228 remained similarly employed on anti-submarine patrols until the War’s end, latterly operating out of Pembroke. Disbanded in June 1945, the Squadron was reformed as a passenger and freight unit in the following year, was again disbanded but re-emerged as a maritime reconnaissance unit in the 1950s, being disbanded for a final time in 1964.