Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: 2nd Lieutenant H. F. Alton, Royal Flying Corps, late Royal Engineers

1914-15 Star (32241 Cpl., R.E.); British War Medal 1914-20, naming erased; Victory Medal 1914-19 (2 Lieut., R.F.C.), polished, generally very fine (3) £100-120

Harold Frances Alton was born at Duffield, Derbyshire in December 1894 and enlisted in the Royal Engineers in November 1914, direct from the 4th Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment (T.F.). Having seen service out in France as a despatch rider from June 1915, he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps as a newly commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in February 1916 and qualified as a Flying Officer Observer that September, initially being posted to No. 6 Squadron. Shortly afterwards, however, he was posted to the School of Aerial Gunnery and, in June 1917, to 30th Wing, R.F.C. as an Instructor in Gunnery, in which capacity he appears to have been employed until at least March 1918. Thereafter, until demobilised in February 1919, Alton served at assorted Training Schools in a similar capacity.