Roald Dahl's family receive author's war medals, 73 years after the conflict

Roald Dahl’s family has finally received the medals the author was awarded during the Second World War.

Before penning the iconic children’s novels Matilda, BFG and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Dahl was as an RAF pilot. He was badly injured after crash landing his plane in North Africa in 1940, and later took part in the Battle of Athens in 1941.

With 73-years having now passed since the war, Dahl’s grandson Ned Donovan has confirmed that his medals arrived on Wednesday, 12 December. Donovan presented them to his step-grandmother Felicity, Dahl’s widow, on her 80th birthday.

“She was extremely thrilled and said she was going to put them under her pillow,” Donovan told BBC News.

He added: “It’s very him for him not to have collected his medals – he’d have thought it was terribly uncool!

“He crashed his plane, blinded himself and then started flying again. He signed up the first day and got right into it.”

The medals are the 1939-1945 Star, given to those who fought overseas during the Second World War; the African Star, awarded to those who served in North Africa between 1940-43; the Defence Medal, awarded for non-operational service; and the War Medal, given to all full-time armed forces personnel.

They are set to go on display at The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire.