An original Cameo pencil drawing by Stephen Brown of a Battle of Britain Spitfire mounted with the authentic autograph of distinguished WW2 RAF Fighter Pilot Arthur Leigh.

Sergeant ARTHUR CHARLES LEIGH
The son of a regular soldier, Arthur Leigh was called up at the outbreak of war. After finishing his flying training he was posted to 7 OTU and then on to convert to Spitfires in August 1940. Arthur flew with 64 Squadron at Leconfield and 72 Squadron at Biggin Hill during the Battle of Britain before transferring to 611 Squadron. Awarded the DFM in September 1941, he had then completed 50 sweeps, had destroyed two Bf109s, probably destroyed another four and shared in the destruction of a Dornier Do17.
After a spell instructing and ferrying Hurricanes from Gibraltar to Cairo, he returned to operations with 56 Squadron flying Typhoons from Manston. He was shot down on his first sweep by flak, near Calais but was picked up by an ASR launch after spending four days adrift in the English Channel.
The squadron converted to Mustang fighter-bombers in April 1944, and Arthur undertook dangerous ground attack missions over occupied France against targets such as trains, tanks, lorries and barges. He was shot down a second time on June 22 when he was forced to land his Mustang near St Mere Eglise, Normandy.
In July 1944 he moved to hunting deadly V1 rockets launched from sites in occupied Belgium. On two occasions Arthur saved countless lives by intercepting V1 rockets bound for London. Using an extremely dangerous wing ramming manoeuvre he was able to deflect the rockets and cause them to crash harmlessly.
Arthur took part in escort flights over Arnhem for the disastrous Operation Market Garden in September. His last operational flights before leaving the RAF at age 26 in December 1945 were from October to December 1944. He provided escort cover for RAF bombers on raids over the Ruhr, Cologne, Munster, Frankfurt and Dortmund.

The original drawing, on archival quality toned paper with colour highlights, features an RAF Mk Ia Spitfire at rest between missions during the Battle of Britain, summer of 1940.

The professionally cut double mount includes RAF wings on an engraved metal plate specially commissioned by ourselves.

This mounted ensemble will fit into a generally available, standard size 12 x 10 inch ready made frame.

This signature ensemble comes with its own unique illustrated Certificate of Authenticity printed on high quality A4 card stock and signed by the artist.

FREE - pack of 4 top quality aviation Christmas cards included.