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Pic: Morton&Eden/BNPS

Harold Fowler in his RFC uniform.

The astonishing life of a Liverpool born all-action hero whose daring deeds would be barely believable in a Hollywood script, has been uncovered after a chance buy at an antiques fair.

Colonel Harold Fowler was an Anglo-American soldier, airmen, secret service agent and friend of Somerset Maughan, who was decorated an astonishing 11 times, shot down on seven occasions and wounded four times in the First and Second World Wars.

Among his numerous gallantry medals was the prestigious DSO he won for when, as a British army sniper, he silenced a German gun battery after creeping into No Man's Land in 1915, he then joined the fledgling RFC and won an MC for conspicuous gallantry before celebrating the Armistice by flying his biplane under the Arc De Triomphe.

After a chance find his medals are now being sold by Morton&Eden in London next week with an £8000 estimate