Award George Medal LAC James McCabe & Leonard Williams, No. 73 Squadron (Italy)

Award George Medal LAC's James McCabe (991199) & Leonard Maynard Williams (1177914) RAFVR Police No. 73 Squadron

Manchester Evening News 23 September 1944

24th June 1948 King George VI presenting the George Medal to 29 year old Corporal James McKay McCabe outside The Royal Northern Infirmary, Inverness. Corporal McCabe, from Glenlivet, was awarded the medal for attempting to rescue the crew of a burning aircraft in Italy in 1944. He had been a patient at Raigmore Hospital since 1946. Queen Elizabeth can be seen underneath the umbrella.
King George VI presenting the George Medal to Corp. James McCabe

 

Wellington HE237 of No.40 Squadron was the aircraft.

If you would like to view correspondence of the time relating to both Lyon who was the pilot and Jones the gunner who survived the crash their files have been digitised and are open to free download from the National Archives of Australia. Akin to the AIR81 casualty files for RAF being released to the TNA but every document/detail included without redaction.

The search facility times out so direct links not available but in
https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/SearchScreens/BasicSearch.aspx

add to search box
lyon 415478

and hit search

You will now see the catalogued files for Lyon and linked file to Jones.
A705 series is the casualty file - hit the sheaf of paper icon and you can view the file (hint start at the last page and read towards the first.

If interested A9300 file is Lyon's service record - it can be viewed in the same way. As with all RAAF files - all the forms that have been destroyed in RAF records are preserved in RAAF files and include photos of the airman.

Ross