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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Donald S Bell VC Up For Sale


Pighills

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I bet Lord Ashcroft buys it, he can certainly afford it with the money he saves from not paying UK taxes, he already has in excess of 120 VC's.

Regards, Dave

Edited by Les Turner
Over use of quotes
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What a great helmet! Do we know how he died? Was it a head wound?

Tony

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I bet Lord Ashcroft buys it, he can certainly afford it with the money he saves from not paying UK taxes, he already has in excess of 120 VC's.

Regards, Dave

Just imagine: if he paid more UK tax, we wouldn't have the Ashcroft Gallery at the IWM displaying all these medals for us to see. Maybe his tax status is a Good Thing after all.

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Guest KevinEndon

maybe if he paid his taxes the money could have bought them for the nation and not 1 mans collection. I bet there would be hell to pay if Ronnie Biggs used his stolen millions to buy the V.C.'s

Kevin

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  • 2 weeks later...

According to BBC Look North tonight it made £210,000.

No mention of who the buyer might be though!

Richard

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From the D Mail website:

Donald Bell VC

Yesterday it was bought in London for £252,000, the third highest auction price for a VC, by the Professional Footballers’ Association. The guide price was £140,000-£160,000.

Newspaper article

Norman

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Perhaps Wayne will choose to invest a week's money buying it - same as we do for an MM.

Perhaps he did!

I assume the £40,000 margin between the two prices quoted is without and with the buyer's premium and charges?

Still, however you look at it, it is a strong price for any VC group. It is now in an appropriate place though. The article in the newspaper linked to by Norman is a shocker though. A few points could be jumped all over for their inaccuracy, but I have to stay mindful that this is the Mail and I'd be surprised if I could believe in anything that appears in it's pages!

Cheers,

Nigel

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From the D Mail website:

Donald Bell VC

Yesterday it was bought in London for £252,000, the third highest auction price for a VC, by the Professional Footballers’ Association. The guide price was £140,000-£160,000.

Newspaper article

Norman

I am pleased that the PFA bought it but just wonder where, if anywhere, it will be displayed. I would have no objection, whatsoever, for it to be added to those on display with the Ashcroft ones but plainly showing that it is on loan from the PFA. It just may be that "a deal" was done with Ashcroft backing off from bidding on it to do just this.

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The Mail article says the PFA museum in Manchester, and even they couldn't get that wrong - could they?

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Any idea to who these further three VCs were awarded:

From the DM article

Three other VCs sold yesterday, for £132,000, £156,000 and £216,000

The third one reached a very large sum indeed.

Norman

Edited to add:

Interesting comment on the DM story:

"My grandfather Christopher George Carter was shot through the knee while fighting alongside Bell when the 9th Battallion Yorkshire Regiment captured Contalmaison a few days after Donald Simpson Bell earned his V.C while capturing Horseshoe trench. Although Grandfather endured 19 operation on what was left of his leg, which was amputated. He died 10 years later from a heart attack. No doubt as a result of all the operations and trauma. His widow, my grandmother didn`t get his pension, the government saying it was too long after the event and the reason he died was not the reason he was getting a pension.

There were many heroes during WW1, odd ones like Donald Bell were recognised but there were a lot equally as brave that were as quickly forgotton about".

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That does make interesting reading,did Neely's family ever receive the War and Victory medal or were these medals just separated ?

regards

Brendan

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L/Sgt Neely's medals were the subject of a thread earlier this year.

D

Was that the rather strange thread by the chap who claimed to have had them stolen?

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