This is a 17 x 12 cm sized bookplate which features the 24 September 1940 dated Gazette award of the DFC for Battle of Britain fighter pilot Harold Bird - Wilson. The bookplate has been signed by Bird- Wilson above an original pencil portrait of him by Steve Teasdale. This bookplate will fit most books on the Battle of Britain.

He went to to France with a squadron detachment on 17th May. On the 18th he shared in the destruction of a Do17, on the 19th damaged a Me109 and on the 21st shared a Hs126. The 17 Squadron Hurricanes were withdrawn to England on the 23rd and then took part in operations over Dunkirk. Bird-Wilson damaged a Ju87 on the 25th and shared a Ju88 on the 26th.

17 Squadron returned to France on 5th June and operated from Le Mans and Dinard before withdrawing on the 17th and reaching Tangmere on the 19th, via Jersey.
Bird-Wilson shared in destroying a He111 and damaging a Me110 on 29th July 1940, he shared a Ju88 on 21st August, shot down a Me109 on the 25th, destroyed another and probably a second on the 31st, shared a Do17 on 3rd September and probably destroyed another on the 15th.
Bird-Wilson was awarded the DFC (gazetted 24th September 1940).
He was shot down by Adolf Galland on 24th September. He baled out, burned, and was rescued from the sea by an MTB and admitted to the Royal Naval Hospital, Chatham. His Hurricane, P3878, crashed into the sea off Chatham. He returned to 17 Squadron on 1st October and was posted to 56 OTU Sutton Bridge in November 1940 as an instructor.