Beschreibung:

Battle of Britain Sergeant-Pilot Eddy Egan, 501 Hurricane Squadron Killed in Action, over Ashford, Kent, Tuesday 17th September 1940, aged 19. (i) A Hurricane brass aircraft serial number plate, a black and white photograph of Sergeant-Pilot Egan, next to his aircraft and a profile drawing ' actual colours and codings of the 501 sqn in which sgt Egan lost his life', framed and glazed, 54cm x 43cm; (ii) A collection of charred remains of pilot's note-book, clothing, sealed under glass; (iii) A steel shirt or tunic button; (iv) A collection of related photographs and related newspaper clippings. For Eddy Egan the War lasted just four days.......... Fresh from school, the raw but dedicated youngster, 19 year old Sergeant Pilot Eddy Egan, was posted to a Hurricane squadron at Kenley four miles south of Croydon, having never flown a single-engined fighter before, he was given a five-day crash course in aerobatics, air firing and air tactics, then quickly sent into the sky to face Goering's Luftwaffe. At 1510 on the afternoon of the 17th September, twelve Hurricanes of 501 squadron, including Eddy Egan accompanied by eight of 253 left Kenley, with orders to patrol over Tenterden at 7,000 feet, in orbiting the area they involuntarily drifted in high winds over Ashford and there at 15.35 while circling at 18,000ft they were jumped by Meesserschmitt 109's. A dog-fight ensued and Eddy Egan had been seen in the thick of the action by his fellow pilots, he was seen climbing to the North West, emerging through the cloud tops, he failed to notice a group of enemy aircraft, behind him to the left and some 3000 feet above, the leading fighter spotted him and dived at Eddy, a burst of machine gun fire followed, the clouds turned crimson and Eddy Egan's aircraft spun to earth, falling into a wood. When a fellow pilot landed after the battle, he reported having seen Egan crash somewhere south of Maidstone, but with dozens of aircraft, German and British, falling from the sky almost daily, searches were almost perfunctory. When a single engined fighter plunged vertically to earth it often disappeared altogether, all that might be recorded was 'wreckage lies buried. Nothing visible. Pilot dead. In Egans case the position of the crash, deep in a hundred-acre wood 'somewhere south of Maidstone was never pinpointed. For 33 years Eddy Egan's family resigned themselves to the fact that he had no known grave, although his name was recorded on the Runnymeade Memorial and in the Memorial Chapel of Westminster Chapel, his mother Grace Egan was desperate to find her son, and during a vist to the London Air Museum in 1973, re-told her story to Tony Graves museum founder and aviation archaeologist who had previously excavated over four hundred aircraft from the heady day's of the Battle of Britain. Over the following months Tony Graves started to gather evidence, and in his own words 'every waking hour was put into finding this site, in those days records of air crashes from the war were pretty scant. Many witnesses were interviewed but one pilot , Gerald Welford, force landed his hurricane on that day, and remembered a British aircraft hurtling to ground about two fields away from his hurricane. Official records put this down as German, but the original landowner a Mr Curwen who now lived near Hastings was brought back to the scene of the crash and the first thing that was found was a 303 bullet confirming that this was a British crash site. An excavation took place on the 11th September 1976 and after 36 years, the aircraft was recovered including the remains of the pilot, the aircraft had burned underground and it was going to be difficult to name him. An inquest in Croydon confirmed the remains were of an nineteen year old man, and were those of Edward James Egan, killed on active service. However the circumstantial evidence on which this conclusion was based, did not satify the rigid standards applied by the Ministry, who demand incontrovertible proof of