orders, decorations, campaign medals and militaria - Spink

November 22, 2012 - LoNdoN
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Major Awdry Morris “Bunny” Vaucour, M.C., D.F.C., a clergyman’s son, was
born at Topcliffe, North Yorkshore, in March 1890 and was nominated for a
Regular Commission in the 2nd Royal Horse Artillery and Royal Field Artillery by
Sir Douglas Haig on 1.9.1914, as a Lieutenant, when 24 years old. He served with
his Regiment for ten months at home before transferring to the R.F.C. and being
posted after less than four weeks training as an Observer to No. 10 Squadron in
August 1915. Three months later he was awarded his first M.C.
Having gained his Wings in May 1916 he was posted as a Pilot and Flight
Commander to 70 Squadron (Sopwith Strutters), and on 24 August flew a
particularly eventful Offensive Patrol with his Observer, Lieutenant Bott, South-
West of Cambrai: ‘Lieutenant Bott discovered that the fuselage was on fire as a
result of an A.A. shell which had fallen inside the fuselage and was lying on top of a
longeron. He immediately tore off the surrounding canvas and beat out the flames
with his hands. Just previously the machine had been hit by machine-gun fire in a
combat, and the engine was firing in eight cylinders only, and the pressure pump
propeller had one blade broken off When near Baupaume Lieutenant Vaucour fired
a white light, and turned west as the engine was missing badly. East of Le Sars he
saw and dived at two enemy machines, engaging them and driving them off. He
now discovered that the petrol pressure piping had been shot through. He glided
over the lines, crossing them at 1,500 feet and landed one mile south of Carnoy’.
Next morning Vaucour was joined at the scene of the forced landing by First Air
Mechanic Warniinger who carried out the necessary repairs and then hitched a ride
with Vaucour to the aerodrome: ‘About three miles South-West of Albert they were
attacked by three H.A., one attacking from the front and two from the rear. During
the combat, Lieutenant Vaucour’s machine was hit by high explosive, presumably
from A.A. guns, and 1 A.M. Wanninger was seriously wounded. The machine
became uncontrollable for a time, the petrol tank being pierced and the engine
stopped, but it was eventually safely landed’. Warminger, who ‘behaved with great
pluck in an unfamiliar predicament’, died of his wounds the same evening.
On 2 September Vaucour and Bott destroyed two Fokker Es on the same patrol
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