Award for Rescue of R.A.F. Pilot
The King, states Tuesday’s London Gazette, has been pleased to approve the award of the Medal of the Civil Division of the Order of the British Empire, for Meritorious Service to Arthur Hendon Cole, Sergeant, Kent Special Constabulary.
An aircraft of the Royal Air Force taking off from Biggin Hill aerodrome crashed and turned over in the garden of the house next to that occupied by Sergeant Cole. The pilot was trapped and hanging by his harness upside down. Cole ran to his ambulance and, although expecting the aircraft to catch fire and blow up at any moment, he freed the pilot from his gear and dragged him away, saving his life. The aircraft caught fire and the petrol tank exploded a minute or two after the pilot had been released.
Reported in the Bromley & District Times, 27th September 1940 (page 5)
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