A medal belonging to a Scottish second World War hero has finally been traced after a 25-year-long search for it.
And researchers have also tracked down the final personal diary of Squadron Leader Patrick Gifford, from Castle Douglas, Dumfries and Galloway.
The 30-year-old died when his Hurricane crash landed after being shot down over Belgium by a German fighter plane on May 16, 1940.
Researcher Gordon MacKerracher has been trying for more than 20 years to establish Patrick’s final resting place.
And he has now discovered that the pilot’s Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) and his diaries are with his great nephew Michael Moncrieff, who lives in West Yorkshire.
Gordon said: “We’ve found his official diary and his DFC. We didn’t know it still existed until we contacted his great nephew in West Yorkshire.
“We were speaking for a few hours and he said he had Patrick’s diary.
“It’s his personal diary – from January to May 15, 1940. This information was never transferred to the official diary of the RAF, simply because they probably didn’t have the admin in France.
“We didn’t know anything about this information, even the RAF didn’t.
“We were chatting away and I asked if he knew what had happened to his Frazer Nash motor car but he didn’t.
“We also didn’t know what had happened to his DFC – and he said he was looking at it right now!
“I couldn’t believe it, I could hardly speak. It had been in his safe with his diaries, it was given to him by Patrick’s sister – his great auntie.
“He started reading out the diary and there was the lost information from his first five months in France.”
The RAF are keen to make a copy of the diary for research purposes and Michael is planning a trip to Edinburgh later in the year, during which he plans to present the medal and diary to a museum.
Gordon said: “I explained to him Patrick’s official flight record book was taken out of the Hurricane by a German soldier and eventually sent back to the Commanding Officer George Denholm and he presented it to Edinburgh Castle and the United Services museum.
“I’ve since found out it’s been transferred to East Fortune Air Museum, in West Lothian. I’ve suggested to him that might be the right place to have it, along with the flight book.”
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“Patrick Gifford was a solicitor in Castle Douglas before the war and took his squadron to France to fight in 1940.
“He was the first auxiliary to be awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC), the first auxiliary to become a squadron leader in the RAF and the first pilot to shoot down a German bomber over Scotland.
“His name lives on in Castle Douglas to this day with Gillespie, Gifford and Brown, Solicitors.
Gordon and his fellow researchers have spent more than 25-years trying to find where Patrick is buried.
They believe he is in a grave at the British War Cemetery at Heverlee near Brussels which is marked “An airman of the 1939-1945 war. Royal Air Force May 16th, 1940”.
However, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission have deemed the research to be inconclusive.