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[STEWART (Major Oliver, MC, AFC)]
Cinquante-Quatre. France 1917.
1st Ed., [ii]+16pp. (rectos only), 7 tipped-in plates. No imprint. [1917]
#62968
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![[HLMainPic]](booksThumbs/62968.jpg "Click on the left or right of the image for more images")
Rare privately published first edition of a series of popular song tunes rewritten by Stewart with RFC themes. A small trade edition was published by Bowes of Cambridge in 1918 with subtitle "Flying Corps Songs." The author was son a of Thomas Gibson Bowles, founder of The Lady & Vanity Fair magazines. His mother was Rita Shell, who was Bowles' mistress after the death of his wife, & later editor of The Lady. She later changed her surname to Stewart. Oliver Stewart was commissioned in the Middlesex Regt. but transferred to the RFC, qualified as a pilot in 1916 & served on the Western Front from Jan. 1917, mainly flying photo. reconnaissance ops. with Sopwith Pups of 54 Squadron. He became an 'Ace', was awarded the MC (& later the AFC as a post-war test pilot). Orig. blue cloth, contents sl. loose, generally VG & rare with labels of aviation historian Chaz Bowyer & 1917 pencilled ownership inscrip. of A.J. Arkell (i.e Anthony John Arkell, MBE, MC, temp. 2nd Lt., RFC, 1916, whose personal papers &c. are held in the collection of the IWM, London). See illustrations on our website.
£225
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