A Collection of Awards for the 1939-45 War

Five: Flight Lieutenant W. E. Wilbur, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, a pilot in No. 2 Film Production Unit in the Mediterranean who was posted missing in Italy in September 1944 - he had earlier flown Churchill to a secret meeting in Turkey, where he was the only photographer present

1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; Italy Star; War Medal 1939-45, together with original Air Council condolence slip in the name of ‘Flight Lieutenant W. E. Wilbur’, extremely fine (5) £350-400

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Awards for the 1939-45 War.

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Wilbert Erik Wilbur was born in London in June 1917, son of the bandleader Jay Wilbur. A pre-war film cameraman, he also qualified for an Aviator’s Certificate in October 1938, in addition to a Gliding Certificate taken in April of the same year. Joining the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve shortly after the commencement of hostilities, he trained out in Southern Rhodesia and took his Air Navigator’s Certificate in October 1942, following which he returned to the U.K. and commenced a tour of operations in Sunderlands. Sometime thereafter, however, as a result of his pre-war work as a cameraman, he was invited to join the R.A.F’s Film Production Unit, an invitation that led to his employment with No. 2 F.P.U. in the Middle East. And it was in this capacity that he was given the task of flying Churchill to a secret meeting in Turkey in February 1943, a mission to which John Pudney refers in his Who Only England Know:

‘Now it is February and Mr. Churchill reappears after conversations in Turkey. Only one movie photographer accompanied him and the lucky man was Flying Officer Wilbur, who is attached to the R.A.F. Film Unit in the Middle East. Wilbur, who has his wings, sits in the office and tells us about the trip. He was allowed in the railway carriage to take the two statesmen together: outside he had to work like mad to cover everything single-handed. The film has a special showing in the afternoon at the American Legation. The P.M. growls appreciatively: H’m. Fellow must have run like a hare.” ’

One of Wilbur’s photographs of Churchill and the Turkish Prime Minster later appeared in The War Illustrated, 5 March 1943. He was mentioned in despatches (London Gazette 2 June 1943 refers). Remaining actively employed in the Mediterranean theatre of war, Wilbur was ordered to visit a squadron on the east coast of Italy on 1 September 1944, taking off from Rome in a Fairchild. Tragically he, his co-pilot and aircraft were never seen again, most probably having been lost over the Central Appennines. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Malta Memorial at Valetta.

Sold with a quantity of original documentation, including the recipient’s M.I.D. certificate in the name of ‘Flying Officer W. E. Wilbur, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve’, dated 2 June 1943; Aviator’s Certificate, with portrait photograph, dated 28 October 1938, and Gliding Certificate, with portrait photograph, dated 16 April 1938; R.A.F. Air Navigator’s Certificate, dated 23 October 1942; a poignant series of official Air Ministry and other letters (8), recording his loss and subsequent investigations in Italy in 1944, including examples from his C.O. and from Lord Willoughby de Broke of the R.A.F’s Directorate of Public Relations; Buckingham Palace condolence message; a copy of Who Only England Know, by John Pudney (John Lane, London, 1944), the title page inscribed in ink, ‘W. E. Wilbur, Rome, 1944’; four wartime banknotes (from Egypt, Yugoslavia, Italy and Malta), as used as souvenirs or “Snorters” of places visited, and bearing assorted signatures; a wartime photograph album covering his training days in Rhodesia (approximately 30 images), the inside cover inscribed in ink, ‘W. E. Wilbur, No. 21 S.F.T.S., Bulawayo, S.R.’, together with several other period photographs, including portrait in uniform; and a quantity of newspapers cuttings relevant to Churchill’s visit to Turkey in early 1943.