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Auction: 25111 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - e-Auction
Lot: 559

The 'Coastal Command' group of five attributed to Flight Sergeant B.R.C. Conway, 210 Squadron, Royal Air Force, who was lost without trace during an escort for shipping off the coast of Morocco on 11 November 1942

1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, unnamed as issued, in their box of issue addressed to O.H. Conway Esq, 109 Windham Road, Bournemouth, Hampshire, very fine and better (5)

Basil Robert Coffin Conway was born at Bournemouth in October 1923, the son of Owen Humphrey Conway, a furniture dealer in Bournemouth. Educated initially at Malmsbury Park school he gained a scholarship to enter Bournemouth school in 1934. A keen member of the school's O.T.C. he was a member of the team which fired for the school at Bisley in 1938.

Matriculating in July 1938 he entered the Royal Air Force at Cranwell as an aircraft apprentice in January 1939 aged just 15 years old. After completing his training he joined 210 squadron at Oban, Scotland in November 1941. Up until the time he was reported missing he had completed over 1000 hours operational flying which included three trips to Russia.

When World War II began, detachments from No. 210 Squadron were sent to Invergordon and Sullom Voe. On 9 April 1940 the first RAF aircraft, a Sunderland was shot down over Sylling, Norway. In July 1940 the squadron moved to RAF Oban and began to re-equip with the Consolidated Catalina. The squadron returned to Pembroke Dock in October 1942, with a detachment based at Gibraltar.

Conway was 19 years old when the Consolidated Catalina he was a crew member of (W 8416) failed to return from a coastal protection mission over Casablanca on 11 November 1942. He is commemorated on the Malta Memorial.

Sold together with a photograph album compiled by Conway, newspaper cuttings and some letters sent by the recipient home, a CD containing ORB's, copied research and a studio photo of Conway.

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Sold for
£270

Starting price
£210