Groups and Single Decorations for Gallantry Remembering 92 Squadron and Biggin Hill


One of the pre-war Cranwell elite, Brian Kingcome became one of the R.A.F.’s great fighter leaders during the Second World War, standing alongside such names as Douglas Bader, Bob Stanford Tuck and Johnnie Johnson. He served during the war in sustained front- line operations in both 92 and 72 Squadrons but he always considered 92 Squadron to be his own, having led it as part of 244 Wing in the Desert Air Force as well as through the most exhilarating and treacherous part of the war during the Battle of Britain. In his memoir he recalls with great affection his time with 92 at Biggin Hill:


‘The surge of adrenalin, the half dozen or so pilots, that were all we could normally muster, sprinting to their aircraft, the tiredness and the hangovers disappearing as though they had never been, the flat-out climb to 20,000ft, the mud on our flying boots freezing fast to our rudder bars in our unheated and unpressurised cockpits, the long shallow tension-building dive south to meet the enemy, sometimes seeing the sun lift over the horizon from 20,000ft and again, after landing, on the still darkened earth. The day only just begun and already behind us the savage, lethal action, death for some, and for those safely back on the ground the memory of two sunrises in one morning and thoughts quickly suppressed of friends not yet accounted for. And life, at least until the next telephone call. Adrenaline-filled life. One sustained electrifying high. I remember Biggin Hill with enormous affection.’


Sold with the following original documentation and items: Original card box of issue for campaign awards addressed to ‘W/Cdr C. B. F. Kingcome, C/O Lloyds Bank Ltd., Cox & Kings Branch, 6 Pall Mall, London’ with enclosure slip and named Authority to Wear slip; Royal Air Force Pilot’s Flying Log Book, Group Captain B. Kingcome, covering the period 22 April 1946 to 25 June 1948; Bestowal Document for Distinguished Service Order dated 15 December 1942 with named enclosure slip from the Air Ministry; M.I.D. certificate dated 1 January 1946; A quantity of I.D. cards and passes including R.A.F. Biggin Hill Operations Room Pass named to Sqn. Ldr. Kingcome D.F.C., 72 Sqn, 1942, Permit to enter Fighter Ops. Room, Malta dated 1 July 1943, R.A.F. Identity Card with photograph of recipient, dated 7 April 1950; A quantity of club membership cards and party invitations; the recipient’s Officer’s Pay and Allowances Book; letter written by the recipient to his mother, dated 2 January 1944, while serving with 244 Wing D.A.F. during Italian Campaign; Savoy Hotel card with 14 signatures including Max Aitken, Hugh Dowding, Sailor Malan, Al Deere, Ian Gleed, John Kent, Richard Hillary and Brian Kingcome; sketch book containing mainly mechanical sketches; original recommendation for D.F.C. awarded to J. S. Ekbury, 145 Sqn., typed and hand written, signed by Group Captain Kingcome, dated 6 June 1944; a quantity of photographs spanning the recipient’s flying career including a mounted portrait in uniform; letter from Sy Bartlett of Melville Productions, Hollywood dated 7 May 1956; reference written by Air Marshal R. Atcherley, with personal letter to Kingcome; a copy of ‘Biggin on the Bump’, by Bob Ogley, given to the recipient by his grand-son in later life; the recipient’s copy of First Light by Geoffrey Wellum; and other ephemera.


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