WWII DFC Group

[James T]

I just pulled this group out of storage I am going through my U.S. Medals and keep finding the British sets.

This group was purchased in 1988 and has for a British Group a lot of information. The Pilot was F/O Lieutenant Lawrence Ellsworth 40095 No. 228 Squadron, he flew Suderland sea planes and he provided me with copies of some of his flight log, photos of himself in flight school and several othere later in the war. He flew in Egypt, Crete, Alexanderia, St.Pauls Bay and in the letter he stated that he flew a lot of VIP's including Sir Anthony Eden, General Sir John Dill plus all his patrol flights. Included are his regular pilot wings and the dress wings buttons and a copy of the London Gazette 9 May 1941 for the DFC.

The question that I have is that the stars and the other medals are not named? I realize that the DFC should not be named it is engraved 1941 on the lower leg of the cross. His letter states that he joined the RAF in 1937 was commissioned the same year. In 1938 he was one of four chosen for the flying boats (his dream) as they were considered the elite. Joined the flying boat squadron in 1939 and went from junior Pilot to Commanding Officer by December 1941. It appears that he left the service then?

Once again I need your help on this set. I believe that this is the last group that I am going to find hidden away.

Regards

Jim

[JBFloyd]

Entirely proper that the stars and medals were unnamed, even if it makes such groups a pain for collectors and researchers.

[Ed_Haynes]

As Jeff says, this is exactly the way you expect to see WWII British (term used specificlly) groups. The total lack of naming (done not for reasons of costs as some have argued, but rather for speed in issuing medals) produces massive problems and limited research potential. Even when you have a group that comes with documents and other paperwork, you can't ever be 100% certain that these are this person's medals unless you have an iron-clad provennce (and by this I mean personal knowledge of the chain of custody from the recipient to yourself and not some tall tale concocted by a dealer). This means that WWII British awards are, uncharacteristically, more like German or other Continental awards than like normally named British awards: Unnamed assemblages of medals that are not really much more than a sum of the parts, something could so easily have been invented (and so often are invented). Even the presence of one or two named medals doesn't help much, for there is always the danger of later accretions to the 'group'.

Very frustrating for research!