Description
Royal Air Force RAF Long Service and Good Conduct Medal, EIIR, with second award clasp, Warrant Officer Donald Kenneth Cole, Royal Air Force, with original boxes of issue.
Officially engraved: “V0592389 F. Sgt. D.K. Cole. R.A.F.”
With the original card box of issue for the Medal as well as for the clasp.
Unusual to see both these boxes survive.
Clasp fitted to ribbon and swing mounted for wear, one slight edge bruise otherwise unworn.
Medal earned as a Flight Sergeant, additional long service clasp as Warrant Officer, according to the boxes.
Warrant Officer Donald Kenneth Cole, first enlisted into the Royal Air Force with the service number 592389, this number block was allocated in 1925 for Apprentice Clerks, according to an analysis of the service numbers.
He was born on 13th December 1933, in Plymouth, Devon.
In 1939 his father William E. Cole, was an Assistant Storehouse man at the Royal Naval Armament Department.
His Mother, was born Marie Celeste Perfetti, an unusual family name, her father coming to Plymouth from Rome, Italy, where he was born as “Joannis Perfetti”, later changing his name to John, marrying a local Plymouth Woman.
Donald later died in Swindon, Wiltshire, during 1998.
When this medal was earned (before 1977) you had to do 18 years of service to earn the medal, but to earn the clasp you would be required to serve another whole period of 18 years of good service, indicating a very long career with the Royal Air Force, from circa 1950s to 1980s.
