Description
Physical description
cross, ribbon and bar
'Cross flory' bearing a Tudor rose and interlaced RAF cypher within a winged central roundel, surrounded by a laurel wreath and surmounted by a crown. The whole over a cross in the form of aeroplane propellers, the horizontal arms of which are obscured by the roundel's wings, which in turn is superimposed upon the principal cross whose horizontal and lower vertical arms terminate with bomb motifs, the upper vertical arm terminating in a rose. Reverse: within a central roundel, the GRI cypher, ornate and interlaced with date '1918', remainder of reverse plain. Suspender: straight bar with laurelled supports. Ribbon (white & violet): violet and white diagonal stripes (each 3 mm wide). The date 1940 is engraved on the reverse of the lower vertical arm of the cross and the date of the second award, 1941, is engraved on the reverse of the bar.
Label
Second World War period Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) and Bar awarded to Wing Commander Paul Henry Mills Richey (1916-1989); he was awarded the first of his two 'Immediate' DFCs on 5 November 1940, for an action over Metz, and the second on 8 August 1941.
Richey's last award for bravery was made in 1959 when he rescued a woman from heavy seas off Portofino; for this he was awarded the Royal Humane Society's Bronze Medal.
History note
Wing Commander Paul Henry Mills Richey DFC* (1916-1989) author of the wartime classic 'Fighter Pilot - A personal Record of the Battle of France', was born in London and educated in Switzerland and later at Downside. He joined the RAF in 1937 and, after two months flying training, was commissioned as an Acting Pilot Officer. He was posted to No. 1 Squadron, flying Hurricanes, in March 1939. The Squadron went to France on 8 September, but saw little action during the 'Phoney War'. Richey's first chance of 'real' action came on the morning of 29 March 1940 when flying a routine patrol over Metz he shot down an ME109. During the course of the next two months he was in action almost constantly until he was shot down in May 1940. After a brief respite to recover, Richey was in action again and, on 19 May in a fiercely fought battle over Chateau Thierry, he accounted for three Heinkel 111s. Richey's machine was badly shot up and he was seriously wounded although he managed a forced landing in a field at La Ferte-sous-Jouarre. By the end of the Battle of France Richey, at the age of twenty-four, had to his credit, nine enemy aircraft including one shared and one probable 'kill'. Richey did not fly operationally during the Battle of Britain but his considerable experience was put to good use as a fighter Operations Sector Controller and Hurricane instructor at No. 55 Operational Training Unit at Aston Down. Operational again in the spring of 1941, he went to No. 609 Squadron as second in command to his brother-in-law Wing Commander Michael Robinson DSO DFC at Biggin Hill. In 1942, Richey took command of No 609 Squadron now re-equipped with Typhoons, which joined up with Nos 56 and 266 Squadrons at Duxford. Posted to India in October 1942, Richey commanded No. 165 Wing at Comilla and No. 189 Wing at Imphal. Invalided home, he later went to Belgium where he served SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force) before his last appointment of the war with the 2nd Tactical Air Force in Germany. Richey's post-war career, during which he was, for sometime, Aviation Correspondent for the Daily Express, was spent with BP.
Richey's Pilot's Log Book covering the period 1937-1943 is held by the Museum's Department of Documents.
Lot 300 in Spink's Sale of 18 July 1995. DFC London Gazette 5 November 1940; Bar to DFC London Gazette 8 August 1941. See File details. Wing Commander Paul Henry Mills Richey DFC (1916-1989).
See also medals of Richey's brother-in-law, Wing Commander M L Robinson DSO DFC RAF. Catalogue numbers OMD 2893-2899 - purchased from Christies in 1985.
Engraved (reverse of lower arm)
1940
Engraved (reverse of bar)
1941