WWI Royal Flying Corps Pilot's Versailles Related Air Force Cross Group

Description

A well-documented Air Force Cross group of four to Flight-Lieutenant Clift Neil Charles Dickson. Air Force Cross, British War Medal, Victory Medal and 1937 Coronation Medal. A small jeweller repair reinforces the suspension loop's reverse on the AFC. The service medals are correctly named. All awards are confirmed. Interestingly, this group was originally found in a plastic carrier bag in a loft in 2007.
The group includes the following ORIGINAL documentation.
1. National Registration Card
2. Certificate of Discharge
3. Receipt for Commission Document
4. Army Commission
5. Royal Air Force Commission
6. Front Line Communication Document
7. Flying Transfer Card
8. Routine Orders Document
9. Original Portrait Photograph, circa 1919
10. Original Portrait Photograph, circa 1930
11. Royal Flying Corps Pilot’s Certificate
12. Officer’s Record of Service
13. Mess documents
14. Post-War Teaching Certificates
15. Logbook to August 1918 (logbook number one)
16. Logbook for 1927-1929 (logbook number four)
17. An original WWI reconnaissance photograph
Dickson was a noted Middlesex County and Dunfermline footballer. He married Thelma King, whose father was known as one of the best amateur players in south England. He was the second son of Georgina Dickson and grew up in Glasgow. He was training to be a teacher when he left school to join the Royal Flying Corps in 1917, eventually joining 5 Squadron in 1918. His obituary notes that he was “constantly flying over the enemy lines and had many narrow escapes” during the war. His logbook doesn’t provide much detail regarding his scraps over the enemy lines, and his second WWI logbook is missing. However,
a copy of his observer’s diary, included with the lot, fills in many of the missing details regarding the dangers of their reconnaissance work, including anti-aircraft shells and enemy fighters he experienced while flying with Dickson.
Postwar, Dickson captained the RAF football team and trained pilot cadets at Cranwell. He was later posted to Aden, where he organized and served as commanding officer of the RAF Armoured Cars. On his return to England, he briefly returned to teaching before returning to the RAF as an adjutant at West Drayton Station. Sadly, he contracted pneumonia and died at the local Cottage Hospital in 1939.
The award of the AFC was announced in the London Gazette without a citation. However, his obituary notes that the award was for “transporting by air prominent ministers engaged upon the important deliberations at Versailles; and during the occupation of Cologne… flying high officials.”
Dickson's logbooks present provide some interesting information about his flying career. It is noted that by 1927, he had 952 hours of military flying. He had flown Farman longhorns and shorthorns, BE 2, RE 8, Bristol Fighter, DH 4, SE 5A, Armstrong Whitworth large and small, DH 6, Snipe, Siskin, DH 9A, and the Avro Lynx. The one surviving logbook from WWI details over 30 hours of combat flying in France in the summer of 1918.