Six: Squadron Leader C. C. House, Royal Air Force

India General Service 1908-35, 1 clasp, North West Frontier 1935 (F./O., R.A.F.); India General Service 1936-39, 2 clasps, North West Frontier 1936-37, North West Frontier 1937-39, M.I.D. oak leaf (F./L., R.A.F.); 1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star; Defence and War Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf, together with related I.G.S. miniatures and a silver identity disc, very fine or better (9) £500-600

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Awards to the Royal Air Force from the estate of the late Eric Campion.

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Charles Constantine House was commissioned into the Royal Air Force as an Acting Pilot Officer in August 1932. A year later he was appointed to a bomber squadron out in India, where he served until the eve of hostilities in 1939, gaining a mention in despatches ‘for distinguished services rendered in connection with the operations in Waziristan, North West Frontier of India, 17 January to 15 September 1937’ (London Gazette 18 February 1938 refers).

Advanced to Squadron Leader on 1 August 1939, House joined No. 218 Squadron, a Blenheim unit based at Oakington, in August 1940. On the 23rd of that month, however, in a strike against Bruges aerodrome, he was posted missing, post-war investigation establishing that his Blenheim had crashed at Guines in the Pas de Calais. One crew member, a Sergeant J. D. Howard, survived to be taken P.O.W.

House was subsequently twice mentioned in despatches, firstly on 1 January 1941 (‘Since reported missing’) and again on 17 March 1941 (‘Presumed killed in action’). Both awards are thought to reflect his earlier services in Blenheims of the Advanced Air Striking Force during the fall of France.