Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Lieutenant J. W. Toone, Royal Irish Regiment, late Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force, onetime attached West India Regiment, who was shot down and taken P.O.W. in July 1916

British War and Victory Medals (Lieut. J. W. Toone, R.A.F.), together with three silver prize medals, including Rossall School 1913 and Jamaica Command 1924, these both named to the recipient, generally very fine (5) £250-300

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Small Collection of Medals to the R.F.C., R.N.A.S., R.A.F. and F.A.A..

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Joihn Wilfred Toone was born in February 1897, the son of a veterinary surgeon, and was educated at Rossall School before being gazetted to the Royal Irish Rifles as a 2nd Lieutenant in August 1915. Transferring to the Royal Flying Corps shortly thereafter, he qualified as a pilot on Maurice Farmans at Farnborough in early September (Certificate No. 1692) and was posted to No. 11 Squadron out in France early in 1916 after gaining further experience in No. 10 (Reserve) Squadron at Joyce Green.

Having fought at least one combat on 31 March 1916, over Souchez against an Aviatik tractor-biplane with rings painted on its sides to simulate cockades, Toone and his Observer, 2nd Lieutenant E. B. Harvey, late of the Artists’ Rifles, were downed in their F.B. 5 in a combat with three enemy aircraft over Vaulx on 2 July - he and Harvey were taken P.O.W.

Repatriated in December 1918, Toone returned to regimental employ in the Royal Irish Rifles in early 1920, after an appointment in the Air Ministry, and was seconded to the West India Regiment in May 1922. And he appears to have transferred to the South Staffordshire Regiment while still on secondment in Jamaica in the early 1920s; sold with research.