Printed from Woolley & Wallis

Description

Group Captain Sir Douglas Bader, CBE, DSO & Bar, DFC & Bar, DL, FRAeS: the celebrated Second World War RAF flying Ace's service issue ATP wristwatch, with silver dial, Arabic numerals and luminous markers, the 15 jewel manual wind movement signed Timor, the case with fixed bars and marked 'A.T.P.' under a broad arrow, numbered 68012; offered together with Bader’s RAF identity tag; a copy of a Bader biography: Paul Brickhill, ‘Reach for the Sky’; Andy Saunders, ‘Bader’s Last Flight’; Dilip Sarkar, ‘Bader’s Tangmere Spitfires, the untold story, 1941’; a Robert Taylor print 'Spitfire' signed in pencil by Bader and by Johnnie Johnson, another print ‘Duel of Eagles’ signed by Adolph Galland; a gold-lettered mahogany sign commemorating the opening of a building by Bader: 'THIS BUILDING WAS OPENED BY GROUP CAPT SIR DOUGLAS BADER C.B.E. D.S.O. D.F.C. IN COMPANY WITH OTHERS OF TANGMERE WING ON FRIDAY 20TH NOVEMBER 1981 IN THE INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF THE DISABLED'; and a quantity of associated photographs and ephemera. [qty]

Sotheby's. 13th April 1999
Watches of Knightsbridge, 12th July 2014, lot 54.
Sold in these rooms, 20^th November 2019, lot 451

Douglas Robert Steuart Bader became a double leg amputee following a plane crash in 1931. He nevertheless returned to active duty at the start of the Second World War and scored numerous kills before being made a prisoner of the Germans. While in captivity he made several escape attempts, in spite of his disability.