THE families of two French airmen have received their posthumous medals more than 70 years after the Battle of Britain thanks in part to the Yorkshire Air Museum in York.

Following a research project by former BBC presenter Jan Leeming and Ian Reed, director of the Yorkshire Air Museum & Allied Air Forces Memorial, the families of the celebrated French pilots Commandant René Mouchotte and Colonel Henry Lafont received the medals from the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton at a poignant ceremony in Paris.

The medals included the coveted Battle Of Britain clasp to the 1939- 1945 Star, which was only awarded to those pilots who actually fought during the height of the air battle in the summer of 1940. They had never been presented to the veterans in their lifetime.

Having discovered the omission, Ian and Jan arranged the applications for the medals from the British Government and promoted the ceremony in Paris. The pair had previously gone to France in May this year to show the medals to René Mouchotte’s surviving sister Jacquelin Quentin who was 101 and had been taken ill.

While researching for the French names Jan had sponsored on the Battle Of Britain Wall in Kent, and had discovered René’s sister by placing a “message in a bottle” on his grave in Paris.

They were able to show her the newly discovered film footage of Mouchotte when he shot down the 1,000th German plane from RAF Biggin Hill and, flying Spitfires, became the first non-British Officer to command an RAF Squadron – he was killed in action in 1943.

She said she was happy to have seen her beloved brother “alive again” for the first time in more than 70 years.

Sadly René’s sister died just three weeks later.

Henry Lafont was the youngest pilot to fight during the Battle Of Britain and had escaped from North Africa with Mouchotte, despite being condemned to death for joining the British following the fall of France in 1940.

He stayed in the French Air Force until retirement when he became Director of the Paris Air Show and died in 2011 – he was the last survivor of the Battle Of Britain.

The medals were presented to the families in the presence of the Chief of the French Air Force General Jean-Paul Paloméros and the British Ambassador, Sir Peter Ricketts.