WORLD WAR II - ROYAL AIR FORCE The 'Book of Heroes', autograph album containing approximately 107 signatures of R.A.F. officers collected in 1941, many being Battle of Britain pilots, including amongst others Group Captain Sir Douglas Bader, Wing Commander Robert Stanford Tuck, Wing Commander A.D. Farquhar, Squadron Leader Alfred Bayne, Count Manfred Beckett Czernin, many American Volunteers from 71 American Eagle Squadron, and other Canadian, Australian, Polish, and Czech pilots, many of whom did not survive the War, Bader page with pasted-in portrait, light finger-soiling, contents shaken, original cloth, upper cover blind-stamped 'Autographs', vinyl 'jacket' by repute cut from a mess chair by Douglas Bader, oblong 12mo (90 x 110mm.), contained in a brass-mounted glass casket with inscribed plaque to the lid, the glass cracked and lid detached, January-July 1941 Footnotes: THE R.A.F. 'BOOK OF HEROES', filled with the signatures of Winston Churchill's 'The Few' to whom so many owed so much. In 1941 a young Eric Powell of Thornaby was given a blank autograph book by his mother, which he then gave to family friend Norman Phillips, mess steward at R.A.F. Martlesham Heath hoping that Phillips could obtain the pilots' signatures for him. Over twenty of the pilots who have signed the book were awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC), six of these being awarded a bar and one a double bar. By repute, the book was once shown to Winston Churchill, who in a conversation with Douglas Bader referred to the book as 'not a book of names, but a book of heroes. God forbid it should ever be lost.' Provenance: Norman Phillips of Thornaby, mess steward at R.A.F. Martlesham Heath, Suffolk; given by him to family friend Eric Powell MBE (1938-2024), a veteran football scout ('Master Eric Powell, 7 Trent Ave., Thornaby-on-Tees, Yorks', ownership inscription on front pastedown dated January 1941); believed sold by him in 1985, and not given to the R.A.F. Museum as erroneously reported in some sources; private collection, Altrincham; Bonhams Oxford, Antique Arms and Militaria, 2 August 2011, lot 316, sold for £28,000; George Ridgeon (1944-2022), fireman and Isle of Man TT racer, purchased at that sale; thence by descent. This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: • • Zero rated for VAT, no VAT will be added to the Hammer Price or the Buyer's Premium. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing