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| Signatures on this item | |
| *The value given for each signature has been calculated by us based on the historical significance and rarity of the signature. Values of many pilot signatures have risen in recent years and will likely continue to rise as they become more and more rare. | |
| Name | Info |
  Flight Lieutenant Bill Reid VC (deceased) *Signature Value : £80 | Volunteering for RAF aircrew in 1940, Bill Reid learned to fly in California, training on the Stearman, Vultee and Harvard. After gaining his pilots wings back in England he flew Wellingtons before moving on to Lancasters in 1943. On the night of Nov 3rd 1943, his Lancaster suffered two severe attacks from Luftwaffe night fighters, badly wounding Reid, killing his navigator and radio operator, and severely damaging the aircraft. Bill flew on 200 miles to accurately bomb the target and get his aircraft home. For this act of outstanding courage and determination he was awarded the Victoria Cross. Died 28th November 2001. |
| Fred Coney (deceased) *Signature Value : £30 | Fred Coney served with No.15 Sqn out of RAF Mildenhall during 1943 and 1944, including two ops on D-Day. He was the honorary chairman of the Mildenhall Registrar. He passed away in 2010. |
| Howie Wing *Signature Value : £35 | |
| John Costello *Signature Value : £35 | |
 Len Sumpter (deceased) *Signature Value : £70 | Leonard Joseph Sumpter was born in Kettering, Northamptonshire, on 20th September 1911, the son of Joseph and Mary Ann Sumpter. He had already served two stints in the Grenadier Guards before transferring to the RAF in 1941. He had joined the army as a boy soldier in 1928 and left again in 1931. He rejoined his old regiment at the outbreak of war but then in 1941 he persuaded his superiors to let him transfer to the RAF. After training in England and Canada, he was posted to No.57 Squadron at Scampton in September 1942 and flew as the bomb aimer on thirteen operations with Flt Lt G.W. Curry. Curry was then grounded with ear trouble, and his crew were told they had to break up. However, he and his colleague, flight engineer Bob Henderson, heard a rumour that a new squadron was being formed elsewhere at Scampton, and went looking for David Shannon, who was apparently on the lookout for a bomb aimer and an engineer. They both impressed the young pilot, and joined his crew. After the Dams Raid, for which he received the DFM for his accurate attack on the Eder Dam, Sumpter continued flying in Shannon's crew, as No.617 Squadron undertook a series of operations. He was commissioned in June 1943. In 1944 Mosquitoes were introduced into No.617 Squadron to mark targets, and Sumpter became Shannon's observer. He received the DFC in June 1944. Shannon was finally taken off operations, but Sumpter reverted to Lancasters for a short time as part of Flt Lt I.M. Marshall's crew. By the end of the war he had flown a total of thirty-five operations. He flew on No.617 Squadron's last wartime operation, an attack on Berchtesgarten on 25th April 1943. He was demobilised from the RAF after the war, but rejoined in 1946 in the Physical Fitness branch, and served until 1950. Len Sumpter died on 30th November 1993 in Luton. |
| Lyndon Sims (deceased) *Signature Value : £35 | Enlisted 1940 as a flight mechanic in the Royal Air Force and commissioned 1943, joined as a bomber Pilot with No.75 (New Zealand) Squadron. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, gazetted on 13th October 1944. After the war he became a successful rally driver, making his debut in the early 1950s driving a 2.4-litre Riley Pathfinder in which he took part in the Rallye de Monte-Carlo in 1954 co-driven by William Rogers, finishing 20th. That same year he finished seventh in the 6 Hour Relay Silverstone, driving the same car. It was in a private Aston Martin DB2 that Lyndon Sims first came to international fame, as the driver in the three-man crew that won the sixth edition of the RAC Rally, in 1956 when he was 39 years old. He was partnered with Rupert Jones and Tony Ambrose, beating Ian Appleyard and Pat Appleyard of Leeds, second in a Jaguar XK140 and Dr. J. T. Spare and M. Meredith-Owens third in a Morgan Plus-4. Later in the 1956 season Sims took a fine fourth in a national sportscar race at Silverstone in the same car, and once again with Ambrose as co-driver he finished 10th in the Internationale Tulpenrallye, which passed through Holland, Belgium and eastern France. Sims returned to the Rallye de Monte-Carlo in 1959 in another Aston Martin, scoring a second in class with his navigator and friend Tony Ambrose who the next year joined the BMC Competitions Department soon becoming a prominent rally co-driver. Lyndon Sims passed away in 1999 at the age of 82. His citation fo the DFC : This officer is now engaged on his second tour of operational duty and has completed very many sorties against most heavily defended objectives in Germany. As Flight Engineer leader, he has shown conscientiousness and vigour in his duties and has been largely responsible for the high standard of technical efficiency attained by the engineers in his unit. On one occasion when operating against Fellersleben his aircraft was badly damaged by anti-aircraft fire. Similar damage has been sustained on various sorties but this has never deterred Flight Lieutenant Sims from displaying great keenness to fly on operations. |
| Roly Hammersley *Signature Value : £30 | |
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