Victoria Cross winner WW2 Rod Learoyd VC signed Battle Brita...

Estimate

£10 - £14

Victoria Cross winner WW2 Rod Learoyd VC signed Battle Britain flown RAF cover. Born: 5 Feb 1913 Folkestone, Kent. Family: s of Maj Reginald Brook Learoyd of Littlestone, Kent who svd HLI in WWI, and Marjorie (née Boadle) from Argentina. Educated: Hydneye House Prep Sch, Baldslow, Sussex; Wellington Coll; Chelsea Coll of Aeronautical and Automobile Engr. Unmarried. Career: worked in Argentina for his uncle on fruit farm and as motor engr; 1936 to UK; Mar 1936 short svce comm RAF; elementary trg Hamble Air Svce Trg, Hants; Svce trg Wittering, Cambs; 1936 Dec to 49 Sqn, Worthy Down, Hants, flying Hawker Hind biplanes; Mar 1938 Sqn RAF Scampton, Lincs; from first day WWII flew ops and recces over N Sea; in next 10 mths flew on 23 bombing sorties over Germany; 12 Aug 1940 VC Action over Dortmund-Ems Canal, N of Munster, Germany (wounded); taken off flying ops; 3 Sept 1940 Flt Lt; Sept 1940 T/Sqn Ldr as PA to ACM Sir Robert Brooke-Popham; Nov 1940 Freedom of New Romney, Kent; 28 Feb 1941 OC 83 Sqn Scampton; June 1941 T/Wg Cdr instr 14 OTU, Cottesmore, Rutland; Dec 1941 OC 44 Sqn Waddington, Lincs (first op sqn equipped with Lancaster bombers); 23 Mar 1942 Sqn Ldr; May 1942 instr 25 OTU, Finningley, Yorks; from 1943 various staff appts incl RAF PR Dept making morale-boosting appearances at armament factories and RAF stas; Dec 1944 109 OTU; Mar 1945 107 OTU; May 1945 48 (Dakota) Sqn; June 1945 1314 Flt flying Dakotas at Accra, W Africa; 1946 to UK; 14 Oct 1946 demob and placed on Res list as Wg Cdr; then ops manager, American Overseas Airlines, Heathrow, London; employed by Dept of Civil Aviation; 1947-50 in Malaya as personal pilot to Governor; 1950 returned to UK and worked for Sid Holding in tractor and rd construction industry; 1953 export sales manager, British Motor Corp, and for a while worked for them in USA; 14 Feb 1958 retd from Res of Offrs as Wg Cdr; 1978 retd; mem, Preston RBL. Final rank: Wg Cdr (RAF). Died: 24 Jan 1996, 5 Selsey Court, Rustington, Littlehampton, Sussex. Cremated: 2 Feb 1997 Worthing Crem, Sussex; ashes interred in Gdn of Remembrance, Plot 35/34. Commemoration: name on RAF Memorial St Clement Danes, London; painting by Eric Kennington (1940) at IWM London; Learoyd Rd, Poole, Dorset. Other awards: 1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star; Defence Medal 1939-45; War Medal 1939-45; Coronation Medal 1953; Jubilee Medal 1977. VC Investiture: 3 Sept 1940 by King George VI, Buckingham Palace. VC location: IWM London. Good condition Est.