MK1 'Mae West' pattern life jacket: Flight Lieutenant Edward Smith Hall, RAAF, 129 Squadron, RAF

Fighter pilot's 'Mae West' pattern life jacket. The jacket is made of yellow cotton twill.

Associated with the service of 403013 Flight Lieutenant Edward Smith Hall. Hall enlisted in the RAAF on 13 November 1940 aged 22. Remustered as aircrew, Hall attended Empire Air Training Scheme instruction in Canada before arriving in the United Kingdom. Attached to 129 RAF 'Mysore' Squadron, Hall flew 120 operational sorties in Supermarine Spitfires. Hall was shot down twice; once in April 1942, and again during a fighter sweep over Berck-Ambleteuse on 5 May 1942. After being hit by flak, smoke filled his cockpit and he was unable to see. Hall attempted to glide back over the English coast, with some help from the aircraft's engine. He was guided back to England by his second in command who informed him when he had crossed the coast and it was safe to bail out. He bailed out near Wilmington in Sussex. His parachute became entangled in high tension electrical wires and he encountered some difficulty in persuading the local farmers of his status as an Allied pilot.

Returning to Australia for duty in late September 1942, Hall was attached to 452 Squadron in Darwin from 21 January to 18 July 1943, flying 34 operational sorties. Hall completed his war service at 105 Fighter Control Unit, a unit responsible for all air operations from Broome to Cape York and controlled defensive activity from airstrips in the Northern Territory and northwest Western Australia. Edward Smith Hall was discharged on 3 November 1944.

• Signalling lamp worn on Mae West life preserver: Flight Lieutenant Edward Smith Hall, 129 Squadron, RAF