Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

An emotive Great War pair awarded to F.E.2b observer, Air Mechanic 1st Class J. ‘Jimmie’ Howcroft, 23 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps, who suffered a fractured spine during a crash landing whilst returning from an offensive patrol over the Somme, 14 September 1916. Bedridden and unable to move for years on end, he became a published poet, dictating his verse to the nurse that cared for him and ultimately producing The Songs of a Broken Airman

British War and Victory Medals (9206 Pte. J. Howcroft. R.F.C.) with named card box of issue, VM officially renamed, extremely fine (2) £300-£400

James Howcroft was born in Bolton, Lancashire in 1893. He enlisted in the Royal Flying Corps as an Air Mechanic 2nd Class in September 1915. Howcroft advanced to Air Mechanic 1st Class in January 1916, and served in French theatre of war 5 March - 17 September 1916. Howcroft flew as an observer with 23 Squadron (F.E.2b’s), and was seriously wounded whilst flying with Captain G. Taylor-Loban, 14 September 1916. On the latter date F.E.2b 6340 whilst on offensive patrol, ‘crashed on landing. Pilot slightly injured and observer badly injured.’ (Casualty report refers)

The foreword to his anthology of poems gives the following detail:

‘In a small bungalow at Liphook, in Hampshire, a broken airman lies upon a bed from which he will not rise again. His spine is fractured, and he cannot shake hands with a visitor. For nearly seven years he has been helpless. He now lies under a window through which he can see the Downs, and the sunshine, and his old caravans of cloud. ‘Jimmie’ Howcroft is his name.

He was flying as an observer in France in September 1916, when his aeroplane crashed. Since then he has been paralysed, but although he is in constant pain his thoughts are clear, his heart buoyant. His tender and undaunted mother, who lost her only other boy in the war, is with him, and so is the nurse who looked after him in London Hospital. She gave up her regular career to help Jimmie Howcroft along that road of life upon which his feet can no longer tread....

At the age of twelve he began work as a ‘half-timer.’ At fifteen he was apprenticed to an electrical engineer, and later he worked as an electrician in textile and paper mills, steel works, and a motor cycle factory.

In 1915, at the age of twenty-two, Howcroft joined the Royal Flying Corps, and next year he became an observer in France. But his military service was terminated on a day in 1916 following a reconnaissance over the Somme area. A bad landing - a fractured spine!

He arrived at London Hospital three days after the accident. He had been the most active of men, a keen airman, and a member of his Squadron’s football team. His hospital bed held him for five years.... It was in London Hospital that his thoughts wandered over earth and sky, and, making the sunshine their own, wandered into verse. His poems, dictated to his nurse (for he cannot write), breath a courage and cheerfulness which are a lesson to us all...’

Howcroft privately published a collection of his poems in 1920, however the success of this venture lead to two further editions being published, and the reselling of his work being handled by Hodder and Stoughton Ltd, London.

Howcroft died in 1936, and following is one of his poems:

‘I Flew!
Upward climbing to the engine’s roar.
The clay is dead, but still the soul can soar
Imprisoned here, as by some earthly chain,
In higher life, my soul shall soar again.’

Sold with portrait photograph of recipient in uniform; and a copy of his published anthology of poetry The Songs of a Broken Airman by Jimmie Howcroft.