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This cap badge and band are the 1918 issue with crown,
eagle and laurel wreath in silver, gold plated on woolen melton
with metal backing, J.R.Gaunt & Son Ltd metal maker's mark. Two whipcord ‘slip over’
shoulder epaulets, each with a brass ‘Canada’ nationality title and two
officer’s ‘pips’, (lieutenant), with red enamel on the annulus, are shown below.
This insignia belongs to Canadian pilot Lieutenant C.A. Mitchell,
known as Albert
Mitchell. Mitchell was briefly assigned to No. 43 Squadron
in France and is not to be confused with another, long-standing
pilot in that squadron by the same last name. The photograph of him below was taken in
February, 1918. This photo and
accoutrements are illustrated on page 33 of Eagles
Recalled by Warren Carroll, 1979, Schiffer Publishing.
Mitchell's service record from the
Public Record Office in Kew, London, is transcribed and can be
seen by clicking here.
Mitchell piloted Camel D.1814 which he crash
landed on 17 April 1918 per The Camel File p 113. |
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While the Aeroconservancy regrettably does not own Mitchell's RFC
wing (upper right photo), we created an inverted image of it
(middle photo) and compared that to an enlargement of the wing
Mitchell is wearing in the above photograph; they are one and the
same.
Clifford Presley wrote to me that
Mitchell died in approximately 1983 and was living in Vancouver,
British Columbia, Canada.
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