Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A rare Great War Salonika operations D.F.C. group of six awarded to Group Captain F. H. D. “Happy” Henwood, Royal Air Force, late Berkshire Yeomanry and Royal Flying Corps, who claimed a brace of victories as a pilot in No. 17 Squadron in late 1917

Distinguished Flying Cross, G.V.R., the reverse privately inscribed, ‘Lieut. F. H. R. Henwood, June 3rd 1918’; 1914-15 Star (1763 L.-Cpl. F. H. D. Henwood, Berks. Yeo.); British War and Victory Medals (Lieut. F. H. D. Henwood, R.A.F.); Defence and War Medals 1939-45, the third with minor official correction to surname, generally very fine or better (6) £3500-4000

D.F.C. London Gazette 3 June 1918.

Francis Herbert Donald Henwood was born in Reading, Berkshire, in September 1896, and originally enlisted as a Trooper in the Berkshire Yeomanry in February 1913. Embarked for Egypt as a Lance-Corporal in April 1915, he remained actively employed in that theatre of war until transferring to the Royal Flying Corps in March 1917.

Qualifying as a pilot, he was commissioned and posted to No. 17 Squadron on the Salonika front later in the same year, where he flew a number of sorties in co-operation with No. 47 Squadron, and claimed a brace of victories, actions that receive due mention in Over the Balkans and South Russia, 47 Squadron, R.A.F., by H. A. “Ira” Jones; so, too, in the wartime records of No. 17 Squadron:

‘One of our machines, with 2nd Lieutenant J. C. Nelson as pilot, and Lieutenant A. J. Pick, as Observer, escorted by 2nd Lieutenant Henwood in a B.E. 12, went out at 1500 hours [on 28 November 1917] to locate and photograph the enemy aircraft which had been brought down earlier in the day. They were attacked by three enemy scouts when over Stojakovo. Both machines fired all their ammunition at close range and 2nd Lieutenant Henwood observed one of the enemy aircraft crash into the hills north of Bogdanci.’

The same source states of Henwood’s second claim on 10 December 1917:

‘The same day 2nd Lieutenant Henwood, while patrolling over Doiran in a de Havilland Scout, observed an enemy machine above him. He fired about 100 rounds with the Lewis gun and then lost sight of the enemy aircraft for a few minutes, but when last seen it was going down to the west of Nikolic, apparently out of control. An A.A. section subsequently reported they had seen an enemy aircraft crash at Nikolic, just in the enemy lines.’

Henwood was also among those pilots ordered to support the R.N.A.S. in attempting to sink the enemy cruiser Goeben in January 1918 - between the 26th-28th she was subjected to constant air attacks, the R.F.C. plots facing heavy anti-aircraft fire on each occasion and, although some 270 flights were made, and 15 tons of bombs dropped, the Goeben made good her escape to Constantinople.

Henwood was awarded the D.F.C., which distinction he received at a Buckingham Palace investiture on his return to the U.K.

Remaining in the Royal Air Force after the Great War, he joined the Engineering Branch in the mid-1920s and served in Iraq in 1930-32 and was advanced to Squadron Leader in January 1937.

Following the renewal of hostilities, he gained further advancement to Wing Commander in March 1940, and served on the Personnel Staff of No. 23 Group, in which capacity he was recommended for an O.B.E. in the following year, a distinction that, alas, was not approved. Having then served for three years in No. 4 (Bomber) Group at Heslington Hall, with administrative responsibilities for 11 squadrons based at nine airfields in the York area, he was placed on the Retired List as a Group Captain in October 1946.

“Happy” Henwood, who was Vice-Chairman of the Territorial and Auxiliary Forces Association, East Riding, Yorkshire, later settled in Chichester, Sussex, where he died in May 1974.

Sold with the recipient’s original commission warrant for the rank of Flight Lieutenant, dated 3 May 1927, together with a good selection of original career photographs (11), several of these in card mounts and including portraits in uniform, two newspaper cuttings, a bullion Lance-Corporal’s stripe, a souvenir of Egypt silk handkerchief, and a tie.