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orders, decorations, campaign medals and militaria - Spink

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November 22, 2012 - LoNdoN<br />

Lieutenant K.J.P. Laing<br />

480<br />

A Great War Pair to Fighter Pilot, Lieutenant K.J.P. Laing, 1 Squadron, Royal<br />

Air Force, Who Claimed One Victory Over France, 5.6.1918<br />

British War <strong>and</strong> Victory Medals (Lieut. K.J.P. Laing. R.A.F.), generally good very fine,<br />

with two original named card boxes of issue, <strong>and</strong> a portrait photograph of recipient in<br />

uniform (2)<br />

£240-280<br />

Lieutenant Kenneth Joseph Price Laing, born Hawick, Roxburgh, Scotl<strong>and</strong>, 1890; educated at<br />

Moffat School <strong>and</strong> the Royal Technical College, Glasgow; enlisted Motor Cycle Section, Royal<br />

Engineers, 22.9.1914; Lance Corporal 1.10.1914; transferred to Royal Flying Corps as Cadet,<br />

April 1917; training included at ‘advanced training unit, No. 58 Squadron at Cramlington, Laing<br />

reasoned that this could be his only chance to make a flight over his home town. Although he<br />

had only 12 hrs flying experience <strong>and</strong> was under st<strong>and</strong>ing <strong>orders</strong> not to fly out of sight of the<br />

aerodrome, Laing resolved to make the attempt <strong>and</strong> ordered a mechanic to fill the fuel tank of<br />

F.K. 3 A8093 to the brim... Taking off at 10.35am, Laing made directly for Hawick... Flying low<br />

over the Main street <strong>and</strong> over his parents’ home at Balcary... enroute he “buzzed” his brother<br />

Norman’s farm’; after training posted as a Pilot to 1 (Fighter) Squadron (S.E. 5a’s), Clairmarais<br />

South, France, 13.4.1918; flew on patrols <strong>and</strong> ground attacks with the squadron, including<br />

5.6.1918, ‘when on Special Mission I was flying at about 6,000 feet when I observed a hostile<br />

two-seater at about 3,000 feet S.W. of Bailleul.<br />

I dived on E.A. firing bursts from Lewis & Vickers at about 150 yards range. E.A. was diving<br />

steeply East at 1,000 feet when I left him. Subsequently confirmed by “J” Battery A.A. as having<br />

crashed’; whilst on leave he was involved in a motor-cycle accident, 22.6.1918, he suffered<br />

concussion <strong>and</strong> injuries to his face; he did not return to operational duty <strong>and</strong> was discharged<br />

February 1919.<br />

247

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