MEDALS won by a gallant fighter ace in the First World War have been sold at auction for £36,000.

The decorations earned by Squadron Leader Walter ‘Scruffy’ Longton had been expected to sell for £25,000 when they came under the hammer in London.

One of only three men to be awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross with two bars, Walter was born in Whiston and killed in an airshow at Bournemouth in 1927.

He was credited with 11 confirmed aerial ‘kills’. Most unusually for a British or Commonwealth ace, every one of his victories resulted in the destruction of his enemy.

In June 1918, he was awarded the Air Force Cross by King George V even though not scoring his first real ‘kill’ in France until July, 1918, when he destroyed a German Fokker fighter. He shot down three more enemy planes in July.

In August, 1918 he became an official ace.

After the Great War he moved into air racing, aviation exhibitions, and competitive air events while continuing his military career in the Royal Air Force, later being promoted to squadron leader.

Walter took part in the RAF Pageant at Hendon in July 1920 when a photo in Flight Magazine shows him sitting in a Sopwith Camel carrying an image of Charlie Chaplin’s Little Tramp.

In early 1927 his plane was peppered by shotgun fire from a farmer while Walter was racing at a low altitude, and he was killed in a flying accident at Bournemouth in the same year.

His family entered Walter’s medals in a sale of 19th and early 20th century British Campaign Medals by London coins and medals auctioneers Morton & Eden, with Sotheby’s.