Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Fabric from the ‘Red Baron’s’ Fokker Dr.I Flying Seat

A small scrap of linen, approximately 20mm x 15mm, mounted in a glazed frame, with plaque below stating ‘Linen seat fabric scrap from “Red Baron” Fokker Triplane DR I 425/17, 21/04/18’, relic condition £80-£100

Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen, known as Baron von Richthofen of simply the ‘Red Baron’, was the highest scoring air ace of the Great War, being officially credited with 80 aerial victories. He was shot down and killed over the Somme on 21 April 1918, whilst flying a Fokker Dr.I aircraft 425/17, after a single bullet hit him in the chest, severely damaging his heart and lungs. Whilst his death was officially credited to the Canadian flying ace Roy Brown, it is now considered most likely that the bullet was fired from the ground.

Von Richthofen’s seat from the wreckage of the 425/17 was later presented to Roy Brown, and subsequently donated to the Royal Canadian Military Institute in Toronto, where it is currently on display. Damaged both from when it was ripped out of the fuselage, and due the passages of time, the linen fragment that forms this lot, one of several that became detached from the chair, is consequently being sold by the Royal Canadian Military Institute.

Sold with a photograph of the framed lot on the remnants of the Red Baron’s Flying Seat at the R.C.M.I.