A Victoria Cross medal posthumously awarded to a Dundee fighter pilot killed in the second world war has been auctioned for more than £250,000.
Wing Commander Hugh Gordon Malcolm, from Broughty Ferry, died while leading a raid on the Chougui airfield in Tunisia on December 4, 1942.
The award along with four other campaign medals and Mr Malcolm’s log book bearing the stamp “killed in action” was expected to go for between £180,000 and £220,000 at the sale at Spink’s London.
Mr Malcolm, who was born in 1917 and educated at Trinity College Glenalmond in Perthshire, was just 25 when his plane was shot down by the Luftwaffe in the raid.
Mr Malcolm was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross on April 27, 1943 for his decision to proceed with the attack knowing it would “court almost certain disaster.”
Also cited was his courage and leadership in previous missions throughout the North African campaign.
No information could be provided by Spink on the parties who had sold or bought the medal.
Another Victoria Cross, the first to be awarded to a British Army soldier, also fetched more than £250,000 at the same sale.
Major John Simpson Knox, of the Scots Fusilier Guards, won the honour for his gallantry while fighting in the Crimean War between 1854 and 1855.
The medal went under the hammer along with a cannonball reputed to have blown the Glasgow soldier’s arm off.
A spokeswoman said the seller wished to remain anonymous.
Mr Knox was born on September 30 1828 and enlisted at the age of 14, having run away from home. He was honoured for his actions as a sergeant in the Battle of Alma and the Battle of Inkermann.
It was while serving as a lieutenant in the Rifle Brigade that he lost his arm during an assault on the city of Sebastopol.
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