Original British WWI RFC Silver Cigar Box Presented to Major Alexander Shekleton DSO OBE Original Items

Original Item: One-of-a-kind. The is a silver cigar box that measures 9″ x 4.5″. The lid has an engraved silver plaque which Royal Flying Corps (RFC) wing insignia and reads:

TO
MAJOR SHEKLETON
A GREATFUL APPRECIATION
FROM
OFFICERS OF 28 SQUADRON
SEPT 1916

No. 28 Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps was formed on 7 November 1915 at RAF Gosport. Initially a training squadron it became a fighter squadron equipped with the Sopwith Camel. After the end of the First World War it had claimed 136 victories. It numbered eleven flying aces among its ranks, including: future Air Vice-Marshal Clifford MacKay McEwen, William George Barker, Harold B. Hudson, James Hart Mitchell, Stanley Stanger, Arthur Cooper, Percy Wilson, Thomas Frederic Williams, and Joseph E. Hallonquist.

Alexander Shekleton DSO, OBE. Gained Royal Aero Club certificate No.399. Captain Alexander R Shekleton joined NO. 3 Squadron in August 1913 and travelled over to France with them in August 1914. He was then posted to NO. 13 Squadron in May 1915 as a Flight Commander. HE LATER JOINED NO. 28 SQUARDON in late 1915 for the duration of the Great War. Prior to joining the RFC he served with the Royal Munster Fusiliers. On 21-Jan-1913.
Promoted Wing Commander, 03-July-1923, to Group Captain 26-Nov-1935.

From the Fourth Supplement to the London Gazette of Tuesday, the 9th of April, 1918 published on Thursday, 11 April, 1918:

War Office,
11th April, 1918.

His Majesty the KING has been graciously pleased to approve of the undermentioned rewards for distinguished services in the Field in connection with Military Operations, culminating in the capture of Jerusalem. Dated 1st January, 1918: —

Awarded the Distinguished Service Order.

Capt. (T./Lt.-Col.) Alexander Shekleton, R. Mun. Fus. & R.F.C

Announcement of his death: Group Captain Alexander Shekleton, C.B.E., D.S.O. Sadly, after months of coping with the problems of getting the station operational, Group Captain Alexander Shekleton collapsed and died of heart failure on March 1, 1941. His wife requested that his body be cremated and the ashes scattered over the open water of Lake Ontario. G/C Shekleton had served in the First World War with distinction and had been hospitalized with pneumonia shortly after arriving in Canada.