Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

India General Service 1908-35, 1 clasp, Waziristan 1919-21 (149954 A.C.2. F. R. Charlton. R.A.F.) good very fine £200-£300

Francis Robert Charlton was born in the Parish of Bishopsbourne, near Canterbury, Kent, on 14 August 1900, and enlisted as a Boy into the Royal Flying Corps on 1 October 1917, transferring to the Royal Air Force on 1 April 1918. He joined No. 99 Squadron in India in December 1919 and transferred to No. 27 Squadron in April 1920, and to No. 60 Squadron in December 1922. He was discharged from the service in April 1923.

He was killed when the D.H. 86 belonging to Quantas Empire Airways was being delivered by the Imperial Airways crew, of which he was Flight Engineer, on 15 November 1934. The aircraft inexplicably crashed at Barsdale station, near Longreach, Queensland, killing Captain R. A. Prendergast, First Officer W. V. Creates, Flight Engineer F. R. Charlton, and Shell Company representative Bunny Broadfoot. Prendergast, the pilot of the D.H. 86, was a South African who had been with Imperial Airways for four years, and had previously served for seven years in the Royal Air Force. Mr Creates, who lived at Wallington, Surrey, joined Imperial Airways in May 1934, after serving 10 years in the Royal Air Force. He was 29 and married. Mr Charlton had been with Imperial Airways for about 10 years. He was married and lived at Croydon. It was reported that the accident was ‘the more mystifying in that Captain Prendergast remarked at Darwin that the D.H. 86 had behaved splendidly and was well suited for the Brisbane-Singapore section. It was fast, with a wonderful safety margin, and could fly at nearly 100 miles an hour with two engines out of action.’

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