Orders, Decorations and Medals

A rare A.F.C., A.F.M. group of seven awarded to Master Pilot V.W. Brown, Royal Air Force

AIR FORCE CROSS, E.II.R., officially dated '1962'; AIR FORCE MEDAL, G.VI.R., 2nd type (544868 Plt. II, R.A.F.); 1939-45 STAR; AFRICA STAR, this a copy; DEFENCE AND WAR MEDALS; ROYAL AIR FORCE L.S. & G.C., E.II.R., 2nd type (M. Plt., (544868) R.A.F.) mounted as worn, very fine or better

One of just 16 airmen to receive an A.F.C./A.F.M. combination between the years 1949-1986.

The lot is sold with the recipient's original Flying Log Books, the earlier ones having been privately bound together, within inscribed blue leather covers, and covering the period March 1943 to January 1950, and the last, as issued, the period August 1961 to June 1962. The earlier bound books contain a number of inserted photographs and certificates.

A.F.C., London Gazette, 1 January, 1962.

A.F.M., London Gazette, 9 June, 1949.

Master Pilot Vernon Wilkinson Brown, A.F.C., A.F.M., commenced flying training on Tiger Moths at No. 36 Course, Belevedere, in Southern Rhodesia in March 1943, after which he was posted to 33 Flying Instructors School at Norton, also in Southern Rhodesia, where he gained a 'B' Elementary Instructors rating in September 1943. Thus ensued a long and distinguished career in flight instruction, a full record of which can be found in the above described Flying Log Books. He left Southern Rhodesia in late 1945 and much of his subsequent career with the R.A.F. was spent at the Central Flying School at Little Rissington. By the time of his last flight in June 1962, he had amassed in excess of 7000 hours flying time, and flown aircraft as diverse as the Spitfire, Lancaster and Meteor jet. Rated 'exceptional' as a pilot, he was finally graded as a QFI A1 Instructor and, more notably, a Master Pilot.