A Collection of Awards to the Royal Flying Corps, Royal Naval Air Service and Royal Air Force

Pair: Lieutenant J. W. Milner, Royal Air Force, late Royal Flying Corps, and onetime attached Australian Flying Corps, who claimed two enemy aircraft as out of control with No. 43 Squadron in the summer of 1918

British War and Victory Medals (Lieut. J. W. Milner, R.A.F.), a little polished, otherwise generally very fine (2) £300-350

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Awards to the Royal Flying Corps, Royal Naval Air Service and Royal Air Force.

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John William Milner, who was born in October 1898 and a native of Selly Park, Birmingham, joined the Royal Flying Corps in March 1917, when he stated that he had a keen interest in matters mechanical and enjoyed motorcycling; so, too, that his brother was a ‘well-known as a racing motorcyclist’. Having then qualified for his aviator’s certificate and been briefly employed with No. 66 Squadron in October-November 1917, he went out to France.

Subsequently attached to 4th Australian Flying Corps at Clairmarais, operating in Sopwith Camels, in May 1918, he transferred to No. 43 Squadron in July and went on to complete at least 40 operational sorties before the end of hostilities. Moreover, he drove down a Fokker Biplane on 29 August after a burst of fire from 200 yards range, and shared in another over Bevillers on 27 September, with Captain A. H. Orlebar, the enemy aircraft being engaged from 150 yards and, half rolling, going down in a vertical dive.

Injured in a flying accident in late November 1918, Milner was admitted to hospital and was finally demobilised in September 1919; sold with a file of research, including a quote from Milner in a history of No. 43 Squadron, in which he praises fighter ace Captain H. W. Wollett, D.S.O., M.C. and Bar, who sported leopard skin flying helmet and gloves; sold with copied research.