Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Four: Flying Officer A. R. T. Irvine, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, who completed a tour of operations as a Flight Engineer in Halifaxes of No. 158 Squadron in 1944

1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, together with the recipient’s ‘lucky charm’, a large piece of shrapnel and two R.A.F. badges, very fine or better (8) £250-300

Alexander Rose Taylor Irvine, a native of Glasgow, qualified as a Flight Engineer in November 1943 and, having attended a conversion course, was posted to No. 158 Squadron, a Halifax unit operating out of R.A.F. Lissett, in April 1944.

Allocated to Flight Sergeant Chilcott’s crew, he was quickly employed on a spate of sorties to France; thus seven such trips in May, 10 in June and another 10 in July, in addition to a brace of trips to Germany. Having then flown four further missions to France in August, and attacked Homberg, he ended his tour of operations in October with strikes on Cologne, Essen, Gladbach and Sterkrade; by his own account a tally of 42 sorties.

In March 1945, Irvine transferred to Transport Command, in which capacity he joined No. 63 Squadron, a Dakota unit, in Burma in July 1945, and he remained similarly employed until the War’s end. He was released from the Service in April 1946.

Sold with the recipient’s original R.A.F. Flying Log Book for Navigators, Air Bombers, Air Gunners and Flight Engineers, covering the period March 1944 to September 1945, together with a good quantity of related documentation, including his Officer’s Pay Book, R.A.F. Service and Release Book, and a photograph album with around 25 scenes from Burma.