A Collection of Awards to the Royal Flying Corps, Royal Naval Air Service and Royal Air Force

Three: Sergeant A. H. Muff, Royal Air Force, late Royal Flying Corps, an N.C.O. Observer who was decorated for his gallantry in No. 25 Squadron

British War and Victory Medals (59404 Sgt. A. H. Muff, R.A.F.), in their card boxes of issue, with related registered envelope; Italy, Al Valore Militare, in bronze, unnamed, the first with minor official correction to surname, extremely fine (3) £600-800

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Awards to the Royal Flying Corps, Royal Naval Air Service and Royal Air Force.

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Angus Holden Muff enlisted in the Royal Flying Corps in February 1917 and went out to France on the strength of No. 101 Squadron in late July 1917, where he gained appointment as an N.C.O. Observer. And he first went operational in the unit’s F.E. 2Bs, with 2nd Lieutenant L. D. Brown as his pilot, in the following month, accompanying copied records revealing a number of night bombing missions over the coming weeks, including his aircraft being caught by gunfire and damaged on a trip to Roulers on 22 September, and being coned by three searchlights over St. Eloi on 29 September, when one of the lights was put out by his machine-gun fire.

Advanced to Sergeant in February 1918, Muff transferred to No. 25 Squadron at Beauvois and was quickly back in action in the unit’s D.H. 4s, as revealed by the following combat report dated 8 March: ‘Left aerodrome at 8.35 a.m. Attacked by E.A. over Le Cateau and landed at Fismes about 11 a.m. Pilot [2nd Lieutenant R. M. Tate] wounded and admitted to French hospital at Courville. Observer [Sergeant A. H. Muff] O.K. Damage to machine: right hand top and bottom longerons shot through; right hand bottom main plane shot through; struts, cross members and engine bearers shot through; radiator and propeller shot through; exhaust pipes shot through.’

Later in the same month, on the 27th, he and another pilot, Lieutenant F. E. Pugh, claimed a Nieuport Scout destroyed over Foucaucourt: ‘Five E.A. came up under the tail of D.H. 4. Sergeant Muff fired a drum into the nearest machine. Tracers were seen to go straight into the centre section and fuselage of the machine and it went down through the mist in a vertical nose-dive, completely out of control.’

But events took a turn for the worse on 28 March, when Muff was severely wounded by a gunshot to his left buttock in yet another combat, and was admitted to No. 24 General Hospital, Etaples. He was invalided home.

Recognising his gallantry over nine months of active service, his C.O., Major C. S. Duffus, M.C., recommended him for his Italian Al Valore Medal, in bronze: ‘He has done more than 100 hours flying in France, of which upwards of 50 were night-flying. A most capable and plucky Observer. Very keen at his work.’

This distinction was approved in May 1918 and Muff transferred to the Reserve in April 1919; sold with copied research.