WW1 RFC Trench Art Brass Badge - 15 Squadron Royal Flying Corps

This is a rare Badge dating c1915- hand made in brass - a superb unique piece of trench art - superbly hand made during WWI

Engraved RFC - with a moving propeller - the centre of the propeller stamped TONBRIDGE

Measures 5cms x 7.2cms

No fastening pin on reverse, may have been hung around the neck with a chain

No. 15 Squadron was first formed at Farnborough Airfield on 1 March 1915 as a Royal Flying Corps training unit, commanded by Major Philip Joubert de la Ferté. It was mainly equipped with Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2cs, supplemented with a few Bristol Scout, and moved to France on 22 December 1915, operating in the reconnaissance role in support of the Army. It operated in support of IV Corps during the Battle of the Somme in summer 1916, suffering heavy losses from both ground fire and German fighter aircraft. It was praised by Douglas Haig for its work in support of the Fifth Army in the Ancre salient in January 1917.[1]

It was again heavily committed to action in support of the offensive at Arras in Spring 1917. It re-equipped with the Royal Aircraft Factory R.E.8 in June 1917, retaining the \"Harry Tate\" until the end of the First World War. It moved back to United Kingdom in February 1919, and was disbanded at Fowlmere on 31 December that year.[2]

One of the officers who began his career in the squadron during this era was future Air Marshal Sir Charles Steele.[