Orders, Decorations and Medals

An interesting Great War A.F.M. group of four awarded to Sergeant W. ‘Cockney’ Rogers, Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force, who was later one of the pioneer pilots for Imperial Airways
Air Force Medal, G.V.R. (1018 Sergt. Mech., R.A.F.); 1914-15 Star (1018 1.A.M., R.F.C.); British War and Victory Medals (1018 Sgt., R.F.C.), together with the case of issue for the Afghan Order of the Throne (awarded 1928, lost in 1933), and three unrelated Afghan decorations, nearly extremely fine (7)

A.F.M. London Gazette 1 January, 1919.
The group is sold with an album containing a comprehensive selection of original documents, photographs and news cuttings, including: Aviators Certificate No. 5800, 7 September, 1917; Air Ministry Licence No. 475 to fly Passengers, 18 March, 1920; Continuation of Air Ministry Licence No. 475, to February 1948; British Passport, 1931 to 1941; Royal Flying Corps and Imperial Airways bullion wings.
Walter ‘Cockney’ Rogers was born in Vauxhall, London, on 31 May, 1895. He left school at the age of 14 and had several jobs locally before he joined the Royal Flying Corps on 2 January, 1914, aged 18 years and 9 months. He was attached to No. 6 Squadron in March and then to No. 10 Squadron in October 1914. Late in November 1914 he was sent to France where he stayed until the following November, returning to the U.K. to be hospitalised after an appendix operation. When fit he was posted to Castle Bromwich, and from there to Flying School in May 1917, where he gained his Royal Aero Club Certificate No. 5800 in August 1917. He was again posted to France, serving with No. 11 and No. 48 Squadrons flying Bristols from Bellvue. In February 1918, he was attached to Ferry Service Duty at Orchard Hotel, Portman Street, London W2. His job was to collect crash repairs from various factories or airfields, test them and fly them to the Squadrons in France.
On leaving the Royal Air Force in February 1920, he took a job with Handley Page flying passengers in converted bombers. He then joined Imperial Airways when they were formed. Rogers had the distinction of being the first pilot to fly a commercial flight to Norway and Sweden during June 1920, and also the honour of being the first pilot to fly a King over London. This was King Amanullah of Afghanistan who visited England in early 1928, and presented Rogers with the Order of the Throne in celebration of the flight. During the 1930’s he was Senior Captain with Imperial Airways flying from Croydon to the continent on their passenger routes, mainly with HP 42’s and Argosy aircraft. He did many proving flights to Italy, Greece and the Middle East as well as freelance work for newspaper reporters and sport promoters, and had some busy times during the Munich Crisis. In 1935 he completed his millionth mile flown in the air, some 10,500 actual flying hours. When the Second World War broke out, he was again involved in flying and testing crash repairs and other aircraft. In 1946 he was one of the first pilots to start flying commercial aircraft again, this time with the Hunting Group, and eventually retired from Civil Aviation some time in 1948 after 34 years association with all aspects of flying and many different aircraft.