Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Five: Flying Officer R. S. Rowson, Royal Canadian Air Force, who was killed in a flying accident in Scotland in August 1944

1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Defence Medal 1939-45, silver; Canadian Voluntary Service Medal 1939-45, with overseas clasp; War Medal 1939-45, silver, together with the recipient’s Canadian Memorial Cross, G.VI.R., the reverse officially inscribed, ‘F.O. R. S. Rowson, J 28380’, extremely fine (6) £150-200

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Fine Collection of Awards to the Canadian Forces.

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Ronald Shaw Rowson was born in Edmonton, Alberta, on 29 May 1917. A Book Keeper by profession, he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force in February 1941, after completing his basic training with a Militia unit.

Selected for pilot training, he attended flying boat courses at Alliford Bay, B.C., and elsewhere, and was awarded his Pilot’s Badge at the end of the same year. Having then been commissioned as a Pilot Officer and flown on anti-submarine patrols in Catalinas of No. 6 (Bomber Reconnaissance) Squadron (R.C.A.F.), he was recommended for advancement to Flying Officer in January 1944, the relevant application stating he was ‘a competent pilot and crew captain, with a pleasant and aggressive personality’.

Embarked for England in May 1944, he was posted to No. 4 (Canadian) Operational Training Unit at Alness, flying Sunderlands, but was killed during a ‘Dark Radar Exercise’ on 15 August when his aircraft crashed into a hill near Helmsdale in Sutherland. The son of Frederick and Lucinda Rowson of South Edmonton, he was 27 years of age and was buried in Rosskene Parish Cemetery, Invergordon; sold with complete file of service papers and records.