The Distinguished Flying Cross and two Distinguished Service Orders awarded to a pilot from Watford who led “spectacular” low-level bombing raids against the Gestapo during the Second World War are set to fetch between £20,000 and £25,000 at auction.

The DFC and DSO and Bar along with ten other medals and decorations awarded to the former Watford Grammar schoolboy, Air Vice-Marshal (formerly Wing Commander) Robert “Pinpoint” Bateson, will be auctioned at Spink in Bloomsbury, London, on Thursday, September 6.

All proceeds from the sale will go towards the creation of a Battle of Britain Museum at Bentley Priory in Stanmore.

The auctioneers describe Bateson as “the famous Mosquito pilot who led the spectacular low-level raids on Gestapo headquarters in The Hague, Copenhagen and Odense: his bombs on the former occasion going ‘bang through the front door'. “

The Bateson collection will be sold along with a framed painting of the attack by the Mosquitos of Bateson’s No 613 Squadron bombing the Gestapo Headquarters in The Hague.

The Distinguished Flying Cross, with its distinctive white and purple striped ribbon, was introduced on June 3,1918 ,for “....gallantry during active operations against the enemy”.

The Distinguished Service Order, with its red ribbon and narrow blue edges, was introduced on September 6, 1886, “for distinguished services during active operations against the enemy”.

Air Vice-Marshal Bateson was only 31 when he received his Distinguished Service Order on April 28, 1944.

The citation said: “This officer has displayed the highest standard of skill and leadership throughout the many and varied sorties in which he has participated.

“In April 1944,Wing Commander Bateson flew the leading aircraft of a formation detailed to attack a target in Holland.

“ The operation, which demanded a high degree of courage and determination, was completed with success and reflects the greatest credit on the efforts of this officer,whose leadership was outstanding.

“His achievements have been worthy of great praise.”

In addition to all his other honours, Air Vice-Marshal Bateson received a Dutch Distinguished Flying Cross personally presented to him by Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands “in recognition of valuable services rendered in connection with the war”.

This year marks the centenary of Air Vice Marshal Bateson’s birth, on June 10, 1912. He then spent the final years of his life in Devon and was 73 when he died in 1986.