One of Bader’s prosthetic legs was part of a collection that Eleys sold for £115,000.
The items included his fob watch, hip flask, wallet, mess jacket, a mounted briar pipe and one of his prosthetic legs.
The vendor, now in his 80s, was a Spitfire pilot in the Far East during the War. He acquired these items from the daughter of the late Arthur Dunn, Bader's wartime mess sergeant whom the vendor had known through RAF associations.
The vendor had wanted to keep the Bader collection together, and so the auctioneers put items on their website and invited offers in excess of £90,000.
Although a couple of museums were interested, an airline executive who heard about the collection on the local radio came in with a winning offer of £115,000 (plus 10 per cent commission).
