Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Family group:

Five: Sergeant J. W. Horne, City of Liverpool Police, late Grenadier Guards

1914-15 Star (18760 Pte., G. Gds.); British War and Victory Medals (18760 Cpl., G. Gds.); Liverpool City Police Good Service Medal, silver (Sergeant 64 K. Joseph William Horne), and further engraved on the reverse, ‘Presented by the Watch Committee, 22nd July 1937’, in its fitted leather case; and another similar, in bronze (Con. 276 H. Joseph William Horne), and further engraved on the reverse, ‘Presented by the Watch Committee, 22nd July 1932’, this also in its fitted leather case of issue, together with his Great War I.D. disc, Silver War Badge, the reverse officially numbered ‘B138802’, Police Athletics Association gilt-metal and enamel medallion and other miscellaneous pieces (2), generally good very fine

The original flying log books and other memorabilia appertaining to Lieutenant (A.) G. J. “Chunky” Horne, Royal Navy, a distinguished test pilot who was latterly employed in testing Attackers and Swifts at the Supermarine Works of Vickers Armstrong, comprising R.C.A.F. issue Pilot’s Flying Log Book, with entries covering the period November 1944 to December 1950, covers and binding distressed, contents good; R.A.F. issue Pilot’s Flying Log Book, covering the period January 1951 to September 1952, latterly as a test pilot at Vickers Armstrong, covers and interior water-damaged, but the latter generally good; Civil issue Pilot’s Flying Log Book, covering the period February 1953 to July 1954, covers and content seriously distressed by water-damage; and Civil issue Pilot’s Flying Log Book, covering the period August 1954 to January 1957, covers distrssed by water-damage but contents generally good; together with a fascinating photograph album (approximately 200 images), covering the recipient’s career from training days in Canada in 1944 through to air display days in 1948, with many well-captioned pictures of fellow pilots, squadron aircraft, carriers and, inevitably, lots of “prangs”, generally in distressed condition but photographic content good; and much besides, including newspaper cuttings, letters of reference and other documentation (e.g. several autographed Christmas cards from King Hussein); together with Horne’s silver identity bracelet and a boxed aircraft compass (‘Type KCA 0101 C’), a rare and interesting archive relating to the career of a distinguished test pilot £800-1000

Gordon Joseph “Chunky” Horne, who was born in June 1926, the son of a Police Constable in the City of Liverpool Police, entered the Royal Navy as a rating in June 1944, but successfully applied for a transfer to the Fleet Air Arm. Undergoing his initial pilot training in Canada between November 1944 and June 1945, where he was rated as “average”, he returned to the U.K. to attend advanced training at Tern Hill, Shropshire in July 1945, as a newly appointed Temporary Midshipman (A.), R.N.V.R., and quickly graduated to Firefly aircraft, one C.O. of the period concluding that he was ‘Very over confident but possesses ability. Needs watching.’

In December 1945, Horne received an extended service commission in the R.N., becoming a Sub. Lieutenant (A.) in June 1946. A deck-landing course in Seafires followed, as did appointment to No. 794 Squadron (F.A.A.), Horne’s flying log book noting a depressing rate of crashes and fatalities among fellow pilots, but also more rewarding work in the form of a fly-past for the King and Queen, on their departure for their tour of South Africa in 1947 - ‘The Queen and I were deeply impressed by your magnificent fly-past’.

In May of that year Horne joined 802 Squadron (F.A.A.), in which he served until March 1949, during the course of which appointment he converted to Sea Furies and was advanced to Lieutenant (A.) in June 1948. By now a “Top Gun” Naval jet pilot, Horne attended assorted air shows and displays, one such occasion being at R.N.A.S. Eglington July 1948, when he flew in a formation of four Sea Furies in front of some 2000 spectators. He subsequently witnessed two of his fellow pilots collide, while they were ‘flying in box formation in a 30-knot wind, only 250 feet overhead’ - miraculously both men survived with minor injuries, one of them having courageously manoeuvred his aircraft away from the crowd.

It was also during the course of this posting that Horne and his fellow pilots journeyed to South Africa, where they put up ‘a display of perfectly timed and brilliantly executed aerobatics’, skills that no doubt contributed to his next posting, in March 1949, to the F.A.A’s Carrier Sea Trials Unit and, in June of the same year, to the Naval Air Fighting Development Unit, both appointments comprising daring experimental work on Sea Vampires and, inevitably, further aerobatic displays before enthralled crowds. One such outing to Brancote on “Navy Day” 1950 was rewarded by the following signal: ‘The brilliant formation aerobatic’s display of the three Vampires flown by Lieutenants Dick, Horne and Black at our Navy Day Display was of the highest order and did much to enhance the reputation of Naval aviation ...’

In March 1951 Horne converted to Attackers, but at his own request that October, he was placed on the Retired List, having passed an interview with test-pilot-legend Jeffery Quill to fly for the Supermarine Works of Vickers Armstrongs. Here he continued testing Attackers, and subsequently Swifts, in an era famous for the race to “break the sound barrier”, and more often than not flew alongside the likes of other renowned test pilots such as Lieutenant-Commander “Mike” Lithgow, R.N., who said of Horne in his entertaining memoir Mach One:

‘ ... “Chunky” Horne - don’t ask me why “Chunky” because I have been trying to find out myself for two years - also came from the Navy. Chunky gained a tremendous amount of experience in jet aircraft at the Central Fighter Establishment and is knowledgeable in the extreme on every subject connected with them ... Chunky maintains a fleet of the most impossible motor cars, currently owning a Roesch Talbot and a D8 Delage. The latter is one of the most wonderful pieces of machinery that a millionaire might have been able to run in better times. In his own words, “You have to switch off when filling up with petrol, otherwise you start to lose out” ’

It was just two or three years after these words were penned that Horne was lucky to escape with his life, when, in August 1957, he was involved in a terrible car crash in a Healey sports car. The driver and another passenger, the actress Pat Russell, were killed, and Horne seriously injured and partially blinded - the police found the car’s speedometer jammed at 103 m.p.h. Aged 31 years, his flying career was over, and he took up farming.