An absolutely unique WW2 Military OBE Certificate to close associate of T.E Lawrence (of Arabia) and Battle of Britain, Wing Commander; Ian E Brodie.
The certificate is dated 1941 and is hand Signed By Queen Mary (and autopen signed George VI).
Ian Eustace Brodie was a close associate of Lawrence of Arabia, working with him as his commanding officer for 2 periods in the India, with Lawrence being his clerk whilst under the pseudonym T E Shaw.
During the war, Brodie set up the Air Gunnery school in August 1940 during the Battle of Britain, later becoming an Air commodore.
The certificate is in excellent condition and comes inside an embossed folder and the original award envelope.
Certificate measure approx 39 x 32 cm
Background
Air Commodore Ian Brodie, was closely associated with Lawrence of Arabia in that enigmatic figure's subsequent incarnation as Aircraftman T E Shaw. In 1926 Brodie was posted to India to join No 5, an Army co-operation squadron; aboard the troop ship Derbyshire, he found that Shaw alias Lawrence was in the draft under his command. Two years later he again came upon Lawrence when he was posted as 27 Squadron's C Flight commander at Miramshah Fort on the North-West Frontier, surrounded by unruly Waziri and Afghan tribes. Lawrence served there as Brodie's clerk. "A very good one too", Brodie recalled. "He almost always produced a typed reply before presenting me with the original incoming letter or signal." Air HQ India was considering withdrawing the flight from the fort but Brodie was eager to retain his first command, and Lawrence to remain in the wilderness. Between them, they persuaded the authorities to leave the flight at Miramshah. Lawrence wrote from Miramshah that "we have had an idyllic two and a half months here under the best and kindest CO of my experience". He repaid Brodie's kindness by using his influence in Whitehall and elsewhere to obtain perks for the fort. He even persuaded George Bernard Shaw to offer to pay for a swimming pool, though this project eventually had to be abandoned. After his years in India, Brodie joined No 43 Squadron (the "Fighting Cocks") at Tangmere in 1930. Flying a Siskin III A, he was selected for the aerobatic team in the 1931 Hendon and Croydon air displays.
Later in the 1930s, as an armament specialist, Brodie served in Iraq. He joined the Royal Exodus Hunt and also hunted with the Baghdad Boar Hunt. On the outbreak of war in 1939 he was an armament and navigation officer at the Air Ministry's gunnery and navigational schools. He set up the new Central Gunnery School and in August 1940 became its first commander at Warmwell in Dorset.
As Senior Air Staff Officer in No 25 and 29 (Armament) Groups, Brodie was much envied for owning and flying his own Gladiator, an obsolescent biplane which he had retrieved from a maintenance unit. He caused a sensation when he flew his Gladiator into Aldergrove, in Northern Ireland, when assuming command of that station in September 1942. The next year he was posted to Iceland as SASO for operations, and between 1945 and 1947 was acting Air Vice-Marshal advising the Italian Air Force
Later in 1947 he was appointed deputy director of Intelligence (Security) at the Air Ministry. This led, after his retirement in 1951, to a civilian post as intelligence security officer with NAAFI. Brodie worked strenuously for the Boy Scout movement. He was a keen yachtsman, boxed, ski-ed, rowed and played golf, rugby, squash and tennis. Brodie was appointed OBE in 1941 and mentioned in despatches in 1945. He was a Deputy Lieutenant for Buckinghamshire. He married, in 1925, Mary Gonville Coates; they had three daughters.
