This week’s From the Archive shows Penarth man, Lionel Smith, after he was invested with the British Empire Medal for his services to the Royal Air Force in November 1970.
Chief Technician Smith joined the RAF as an apprentice in 1950 and later served with Number 33 Signals Unit in Cyprus.
He is pictured above, after the investiture, with Air Marshall W.D Hodgkinson, alongside his wife, Mavis, who was born in Cardiff.
Also pictured are his three sons, Haydn, 13, David, 10, and Brynley, 7.
The British Empire Medal was founded in 1917 and awards exceptional civil or military service which is worthy of recognition.
The medal was scrapped in 1993 by former Conservative Prime Minister, John Major, and ceased to be awarded in the United Kingdom until 2012, when it was reinstated under David Cameron’s government.
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