Orders, Decorations and Medals

Six: Warrant Officer Class I Richard Lane Pearce, Royal Air Force, late Royal Flying Corps

1914-15 Star (406 Cpl., R.F.C.); British War and Victory Medals (406 S.M.1, R.A.F.); Jubilee 1935, unnamed; Coronation 1937, unnamed; Royal Air Force L.S. & G.C., G.V.R. (406 S.M. 1, R.A.F.) mounted as worn, very fine (6) £260-300

Richard Lane Pearce was born in Weymouth, Dorset. He enlisted directly into the Royal Flying Corps on 3 October 1912. On the outbreak of war he was an Air Mechanic 1st Class based at No. 7 Squadron. Posted overseas on 3 April 1915. Appointed a Temporary Sergeant-Major in October 1916, being confirmed in that rank in May 1917. Awarded the R.A.F. Long Service Medal in 1930. In the December 1937 R.A.F. List he is shown as having been based at H.Q. No. 1 Bombing Group, Abingdon, from March 1935. In the 1938-1944 Lists he is shown as the second most senior R.A.F. warrant officer. Warrant Officer Pearce retired in 1945/46. (Ref. A Contemptible Little Flying Corps, by McInnes & Webb - listed incorrectly as ‘406 Richard Lano Pearce)

With two Warrants appointing Richard Lane Pearce to be a Warrant Officer Class I in the Regular Forces, date 2 May 1917, and another, appointing him Warrant Officer Class I in the Royal Air Force, dated 1 January 1920, this latter signed by Winston S. Churchill; these individually framed. Also with a folder containing copied research.