Origins of the Flying Sword Crest

No. 601 Squadron was formed at RAF Northolt on 14 October 1925. An Auxiliary Squadron of the RAF, the original officers were picked by the first commanding officer, Lord Edward Grosvenor, who formed the idea for the squadron at White's Gentlemen’s Club.

The iconic ‘Flying Sword’ crest was designed by Lord Grosvenor, representing a scarlet ‘Sword of London piercing a pilot’s wings’. He did not add the customary motto ribbon, as seen on every other squadron crest in the RAF. In the 1930s, several years after its design, and after Lord Grosvenor’s death, the Air Ministry decided that No. 601 Squadron’s crest should conform to RAF standards and asked for a motto to be submitted. Commanding Officer at the time, Squadron Leader Brian Thynne, was unable to think of a motto, so instead submitted a tongue-in-cheek request to ‘design a strip of red tape to fit under the Flying Sword, symbolising without words the frustration of an Auxiliary squadron’. After debate back and forwards the matter was dropped: the badge remains ribbonless to this day, unlike every other squadron badge in the RAF.