GROUPS AND SINGLE DECORATIONS FOR GALLANTRY
Settling in California in the 1920s, where he worked for Canada Life insurance - and was a member of the Hollywood Cricket Team - Norton moved to Vancouver in the mid-1930s and, on the renewal of hostilities, joined the R.C.A.F., rising to the rank of Wing Commander in Training Command, in addition to serving as a Liaison Officer in Washington D.C. He was awarded the M.B.E. The Wing Commander eventually retired to Spain, where he died at Gerona in January 1975.
Sold with the following extensive archive of original documentation and photographs: (i) Three educational certificates, all in the recipient’s name, two of them issued by Cambridge University in 1911 and 1912.
(ii) The recipient’s Federation Areonautique Internationale / British Empire Aviator’s Certificate (No. 2456), with portrait photograph, dated 10 February 1916, and his Royal Flying Corps (Officers) Graduation Certificate (No. 1516), issued at the Central Flying School, Upavon on 23 June 1916.
(iii) The recipient’s Mention in Despatches Certificate (Douglas Haig’s Despatch dated 9 April 1917). (iv) Letters to the recipient from his mother and sister, congratulating him on the award of his M.C. in April 1917.
(v) The recipient’s Pilot’s Flying Log Book, the front cover inscribed, ‘J. N. Norton, 2 Lt., 7th Res. Cav. Regt.’, with entries covering the period January 1916 to December 1919, though the period from July 1918, when he was appointed to the command of ‘C’ advanced Flight, No. 142 Squadron, in Jerusalem, more by way of a summary of appointments than individual flight entries.
(vi) A particularly fine array of Great War photographs, approximately 200 images, a few covering the recipient’s time in France, including target photographs, but the vast majority his period of active service in Palestine 1917-18, including aircraft, fellow pilots, air- to-air and air-to-ground images, and much besides: in all an important photographic archive of air operations in this theatre of war.
(vii) The recipient’s Commission Warrants for the ranks of Captain in the R.A.F., w.e.f. 1 April 1918, and dated 1 December 1918, and Flying Officer, dated 2 August 1919.
(viii) An Air Ministry letter dated 23 January 1925, addressed to the recipient in Santa Monica, California, forwarding a copy of his service record, the latter stating ‘At the close of hostilities this officer was officially credited with eight victories in aerial combat’, though no mention of Norton in standard “Air Ace” references has been found.
(ix) Relevant front covers and pages from The Liberty magazine - ‘I Flew Lawrence in War-Crazed Arabia, by Captain John H. Norton, as told by J. B. L. Lawrence’, 20 and 27 January, and 3 and 10 February 1934 editions.
(x) The recipient’s Commission Warrant for the rank of Pilot Officer in the R.C.A.F. (Special Reserve), w.e.f. 8 November 1939, and dated 20 March 1944.
(xi) A letter to the recipient from his aunt, dated 29 September 1940, addressed to him at No. 3 Training Command, Montreal, in which she relates family news and the air battles going on over Sussex.
(xii) A scrap album, 25pp., containing numerous press cuttings and photographs relevant to the recipient’s service in the R.C.A.F. in the 1939-45 War, together with other memorabilia, including a Laisser Passer for a return trip to Ottawa from the Canadian Legation in Washington D.C. in March 1942 (’He will be carrying with him certain very confidential documents which on no account should be disturbed ... ’); together with another scrap album covering the inter-war years, with a mass of newspaper cuttings, invitations and letters, etc.
(xiii) The recipient’s M.B.E. warrant, in the name of ‘Wing Commander John Hamilton Norton, M.C., D.F.C., R.C.A.F.’ and dated 1 January 1946, together with related Central Chancery forwarding letter.
(xiv) R.C.A.F. Active Service Certificate, dated 6 February 1946, confirming the recipient’s entitlement to the overseas clasp on his Canadian Voluntary Service Medal, and honourable discharge in the rank of Wing Commander.
Together with a portrait of the recipient, head and shoulders, wearing R.C.A.F. tunic with medal ribands, by Michael Alexander Werboff (Russian, 1896-1996), oil on canvas, signed and dated ‘M. A. Werboff, March 6, 1943, New York’, 35cm. by 45cm., in gilt glazed frame.
x14
A Second World War M.B.E. group of three awarded to Captain L. K. Massey, Royal Canadian Army Service Corps, late Army Service Corps
THEMOST EXCELLENTORDER OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE, M.B.E. (Civil) Member’s 2nd type breast badge; BRITISHWAR AND VICTORYMEDALS (2. Lieut. L. K. Massey.) together with A.S.C. brass cap badge, very fine (4)
£120-140 M.B.E. London Gazette 1 January 1946: ‘Leonard Kinsey Massey, Esq., Honorary Organiser, Islington Savings Committee.’
Leonard Kinsey Massey joined the Canadian Army Service Corps as Second Lieutenant on 1 July 1917, and went overseas in October of that year. He was attached to the Army Service Corps on 30 September 1918, granted a commission as Second Lieutenant, Land Forces, on 10 October 1918, and demobilized in July 1919. He served as a Captain in the R.C.A.S.C. during the Second World War.
Sold with original commission as Second Lieutenant, Land Forces, 10 October 1918; original warrant for M.B.E., 1 January 1946; and two portrait photographs of Massey in uniform together with two group photographs. Accompanied by additional research.
x15
An unattributed Second World War M.B.E. group of seven
THEMOST EXCELLENTORDER OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE, M.B.E. (Military) Member’s 2nd type breast badge, silver; 1939-45 STAR;AFRICA STAR, 1 clasp, 8th Army; ITALY STAR;DEFENCE ANDWARMEDALS 1939-45, with M.I.D. oak leaf; EFFICIENCYDECORATION, Territorial,
G.VI.R., 2nd issue, reverse officially dated 1950, with two additional long service bars, officially dated 1954 and 1956, all unnamed as issued, mounted as worn, very fine (7)
£140-160
www.dnw.co.uk
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