Lot 47
A Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) awarded to a Lancaster bomber Flight Engineer in 1944 for his service with the renowned 115 Squadron, Royal Air Force. The DFC is un-named as issued but accompanied by the Buckingham Palace bestowal slip addressed to Flight Lieutenant A T Dewar.
Alfred Thomas Dewar (known as ‘Dickie’) was born on 26 January 1921 at Poplar, East London. He enlisted into the RAF as an Aircraft Hand (ACH) with the rank of Aircraftman Second Class (AC2) in May 1938 and was posted to RAF Cardington, near Bedford, to complete his initial training. Formerly the base of the R101 airship, RAF Cardington started constructing barrage balloons in 1936-37 and became the No 1 RAF Balloon Training Unit responsible for the training of barrage balloon operators and drivers. In 1942 the new role of Flight Engineer was introduced into the RAF, the primary purpose of which was to assist pilots in the flying of large, multi-engine aircraft that had become too technically complex to be operated by a single pilot. By taking over management of the aircraft’s various systems the Flight Engineer freed the pilot to concentrate on the actual flying of the aircraft and, having received basic flying instruction, was also regarded as the aircraft’s co-pilot.
Dickie Dewar volunteered for aircrew duty as a Flight Engineer and received his technical training at RAF St Athan and further type-specific training for the Lancaster bomber at the Avro Company. On completion of his training in 1943 he was posted to 115 Squadron at RAF Mildenhall, in the rank of Sergeant, for operational duty as a Flight Engineer. 115 squadron (code letters A4, AA, IL, KO) was part 3 Group of Bomber Command and was in the forefront of the Group’s operations in its strategic bombing campaign against Germany. In April 1939 it had been equipped with the Vickers Wellington and when the Wellington was later phased out the Squadron became the first in Bomber Command to take on charge the Bristol Hercules-powered Lancaster Mk II. This was replaced in 1944 by the iconic Merlin-powered Mks I and III Lancasters. Operating successively from RAF stations at Marham, Mildenhall, East Wretham and Little Snoring, November 1943 saw the squadron finally settled at Witchford, near Ely in Cambridgeshire, from where it operated until the end of the war. Its battle honours were forged in the heat of all Bomber Command’s major campaigns over occupied Europe, including The Ruhr, Berlin, Overlord, and the Oil and Transportation Plans. By the end of hostilities, 115 Squadron had one of the finest records in Bomber Command, having participated in 678 bombing and mining raids, totalling 7,753 sorties. In doing so, the Squadron lost 208 aircraft on operations, the highest total in Bomber Command and dropped approximately 23,000 tons of bombs, the second highest total in Bomber Command.
Sergeant Dewar was appointed to a commission as a Pilot Officer on 8 February 1944 and was promoted to war substantive Flying Officer on 8 August 1944. He completed a full tour of 30 operational sorties and was awarded the DFC on completion of his tour in August 1944 (London Gazette 17 October 1944). He was then employed on training duties until the end of the war, at No. 3 Lancaster Finishing School (LFS), located at RAF Feltwell, which trained aircrews for the Lancaster bomber before they were assigned to operational squadrons. He married Eileen May Sugg (1922-1998) in January 1945 and, post war, he was employed in civil aviation as a flight engineer on Tudor aircraft. He died of a heart attack at Southend-on-Sea on 7 June 1991, at the age of 70.
During the Second World War, RAF Bomber Command suffered devastating casualties, with over 55,500 men killed out of approximately 125,000 aircrew; a fatal casualty rate of over 44%. Another 18,700 aircrew were wounded, injured or became prisoners of war, with only about 30% surviving their tour of duty without being killed, injured, or captured. So, Dickie Dewar’s DFC, like all the other awards to members of Bomber Command, was hard-won indeed.
The DFC is officially dated 1944 on reverse and in its Royal Mint fitted case of issue, with original silk ribbon and investiture pin brooch, Buckingham Palace bestowal slip and undress ribbon bar dating from 1945; together with Flying Officer Dewar’s WW2 campaign medals consisting of: the 1939-1945 Star, The Air Crew Europe Star and the Defence and War Medals, and copy extracts from the London Gazette and the RAF List, and ephemera including:
An original photograph showing the air and ground crews of Lancaster Mk II F-Freddie of 115 Squadron, circa late 1943; Flight engineer Sgt Dewar is on the left of the front row.
Photographs of AC2 Dewar (on right) with colleague at RAF Cardington, May 1938, AC Dewar alone in RAF No 1 dress and Pilot Officer Dewar on commissioning (2).
RAFVR ID card and civil flight engineer’s licence from the 1950s.
DFC lightly toned; Extremely Fine (EF) condition.
Sold for £1,900
