Special Collections
Create new listSix: Flight Lieutenant G. W. Manton, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, late Royal Air Force, a Great War pilot who went on to escape Dunkirk in 1940 and gain the Air Efficiency Award in 1955
British War and Victory Medals (Lieut., R.A.F.); 1939-45 Star; Defence and War Medals; Air Efficiency Award, E.II.R. (Flt. Lt., R.A.F.V.R.), together with related Dunkerque Medal and Dunkirk Veterans’ Association lapel badge, generally good very fine (8) £250-300
This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Awards to the R.F.C. and R.A.F. formed by Wing Commander Bill Traynor.
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George William Manton, who entered the Royal Flying Corps as a Cadet in June 1917, was confirmed in the rank of 2nd Lieutenant - and as a Flying Officer - that December. Posted to No. 52 Squadron, an Army co-operation unit, out in France in January 1918, he was invalided home at the end of March, his service record being endorsed ‘Unfit any service, 1 month’. Hospitalised until May, he returned to active service with No. 27 Squadron, a D.H. 9 unit operating out of Ruisseauville, France in June 1918, but was admitted once more to hospital, at le Touquet, a week or two later, and thence returned to the Reserve Depot back home with a recommendation for ‘light duty with flying’ for 8 weeks. Thus his employment as a ferry pilot until early 1919, when he was placed on the Unemployed List.
Recalled on the renewal of hostilities, Manton was commissioned as a Pilot Officer in the Administrative and Special Duties Branch, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, in September 1939, served in the B.E.F. and was evacuated from Dunkirk. Released from active service in October 1945, he rejoined the R.A.F.V.R. in February 1949, with an appointment in the Secretarial Branch in the rank of Flight Lieutenant, and was finally placed back on the Retired List in 1955, having been awarded his Air Efficiency Award in the previous year (A.M.O. No. 672 of 1954 refers).
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