Lot 4977

Description

British War Medal 1914-18. Captain D.T.W.Manwell A.I.F. Impressed. Extremely fine.

David Thomas Willam Manwell, 2nd Lieutenant, No 1 Squadron Australian Flying Corps, commission agent, age 25, born at Queenscliff, Vic; Enl.06Jan1916; Emb.16Mar1916; RTA 30Oct1918; Appt terminated 19Feb1920.

MID: LG 16/1/1918 p937; CAG 23/5/1918 p1125.

MBE: LG 3/6/1919 p7029; CAG 6/10/1919 p1465.

Among the five aircraft that made up Point Cook's original complement was a Bristol Boxkite. For the next three years pupils at the Central Flying School learnt the rudiments of their trade on this 'mass of booms and struts and wire'. The first of them, four officers - Captain Thomas White and Lieutenants Richard Williams, David Manwell and George Merz, arrived on 17 August 1914, just two weeks after Europe went to war. Before them was a task as novel as any ever undertaken by Australian service personnel.

Together with eleven pages of research and one photograph copied from a book of the Central Flying School Staff and Students 1914.