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Auction: 13001 - Orders, Decorations, Campaign Medals and Militaria
Lot: 6

A Good 1948 ´Palestine´ M.B.E., Second War 1944 ´Pathfinder Force´ D.F.M. Group of Eight to Wing Commander M. Scholes, Royal Air Force, Reputedly the Oldest Person Ever to Fly in a Tornado Mission, As a ´Spin´ to Celebrate His 65th Birthday Turned Into a Two and A Half Hour Sortie Over the North Sea After The Pilot Was Radioed to Investigate a Russian Trawler That Was Close to British Territorial Waters
a) The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, 2nd type, Military Division, Member´s (M.B.E.) breast Badge, silver, with Royal Mint case of issue
b) Distinguished Flying Medal, G.VI.R. (1768237. Act. F/Sgt. M. Scholes. R.A.F.)
c) 1939-1945 Star
d) Air Crew Europe Star, with France and Germany Bar
e) Defence and War Medals
f) General Service 1918-62, G.VI.R., one clasp, Palestine 1945-48 (Act. Flt. Lt. M. Scholes. R.A.F.)
g) Coronation 1953, generally nearly extremely fine, mounted court style as originally worn, in fitted case, with the following related items:
- The recipient´s Flight Engineers Flying Log Book, covering the period 7.9.1943-16.2.1947
- Pilot´s and Flight Engineer´s Notes for the Lancaster
- The recipient´s Pathfinder Association Membership Card and cloth badge
- Named Buckingham Palace enclosure for the M.B.E. (8)

M.B.E. London Gazette 29.6.1948 Flying Officer Malcolm Scholes, D.F.M. (184769), Royal Air Force
´For distinguished service in Palestine´

D.F.M. London Gazette 17.11.1944 Acting Flight Sergeant 1768237 Malcolm Scholes, R.A.F.V.R., 35 Sqn
The Recommendation, dated 21.8.1944, states: ´This N.C.O. is a Flight Engineer who has, for a long period, operated as a visual Bomb Aimer. Through his keenness and efficiency he has attained a very high standard of accuracy and there is little doubt that his crew is one of the most reliable in the squadron. Flight Sergeant Scholes has set an example of tenacity and enthusiasm to the squadron and in recognition he is recommended for the non-immediate award of the Distinguished Flying Medal.´

Remarks by Station Commander: ´Strongly recommended. An exceptionally keen and capable member of aircrew, he has set a fine example to the rest of the squadron.´

Wing Commander Malcolm Scholes, M.B.E., D.F.M., was born in Wakefield, Yorkshire on the 17th October 1924, and educated at Wakefield Technical College, joining the Royal Air Force on his 18th birthday. After just 60 hours of flying experience as a flight engineer, he joined No.35 (Pathfinder) Squadron (Halifaxes), based at Graveley. His first operational sortie was on the 11th November 1943, to bomb the marshalling yards at Cannes, on the main coastal railway to Italy- his plane was badly damaged by flak and only just managed to return to England, where it was forced to crash-land. Over the next eleven months he completed a further 54 sorties, the majority of these in Lancasters (the Squadron having converted to them by February 1944), in which his aircraft was hit by flak 11 times: targets including Manheim; Berlin (3); Leipzig; Magdeburg; Stuttgart (6); Sweinfort, 24.2.1944- ´R/G shot down enemy fighter´ (Log Book refers); Augsburg; Nuremburg, 30.4.1944- the night when Bomber Command suffered its worst casualties of the war, when 95 bombers, each with a crew of seven, were lost; Cologne; Friedrichshafen; Kiel; Bremen; and Saarbrucken. Having qualified as a bomb-aimer in March 1944, in the run-up to D-Day he also performed this role when Bomber Command shifted their targets to northern France in preparation for the Allied Invasion. On the night of the 5th-6th June 1944 he attacked the Longues Gunsite, when the order was ´this target has to be destroyed at all costs´. His final mission with No.35 Squadron was an attack on Saarbrucken on the 5th October 1944, 12 days before his 20th birthday.

Commissioned Pilot Officer, 29.8.1944, Scholes served until the end of the War as an instructor at the Pathfinder Force Training Unit, where he was promoted Flying Officer, 1.5.1945. In July 1947 he was posted as the Adjutant to the R.A.F. airfield at Ein Shemer in Palestine, where he was much involved in the arrangements for the total evacuation of the unit ahead of the expiry of the British Mandate, and the subsequent creation of the Israeli state in May 1948. On the 25th April 1948 he led the final convoy of 110 vehicles for evacuation to Egypt and Cyprus- for his work over the past year he was awarded the M.B.E. ´For distinguished services in Palestine...his devotion to duty has been far and above the normal requirements of the service.´

Promoted Flight Lieutenant, 4.12.1952; and subsequently advanced Squadron Leader, 1.7.1960, Scholes served on bomber stations before being appointed the last commander of the R.A.F. garrison in Tobruk, where he made numerous forays into the desert with Army patrols also based there, so much so that by the time he relinquished his post in June 1967 they had given him the nickname ´the Blue Major´. Promoted Wing Commander the following month, 1.7.1967, he served as Station Commander at R.A.F. Biggin Hill between 1970 and 1973, and then at the R.A.F. Regiment Depot at Catterick, before taking up a recruiting post at the Ministry of Defence. He took to the skies for the last time on his 65th birthday- his last day in uniform- 17.10.1989, in a Tornado fighter from R.A.F. Leeming. However, his brief ´spin´ turned into a two and a half hour sortie over the North Sea after the pilot was radioed to investigate a Russian trawler that was close to British territorial waters, making him reputedly the oldest person ever to fly in a Tornado mission. Wing Commander Scholes died on the 11th November 2008.

Sold for
£3,800