Grinnell-Milne's medals

[tomcervo]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MC-DFC-and-BAR-to-ACE-and-POW-CAPT-DUNCAN-GRINNELL-MILNE-/281833440074?nma=true&si=0r%252BE9yCnkSrF3FB1vrakPC6X%252B%252B0%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557&rmvSB=true&rmvSB=true

May be old news; posted in the chance it isn't. Author of two of my favorite memoirs.

[Coldstreamer]

Nice group. I wouldn't spend that much on an ebay purchase mind

[Lancashire Fusilier]

A great medal grouping.

[alex revell]

What a shame that G-M's medals fell into the hands of a dealer who is willing to sell them to the highest bidder. How did he obtain them, I wonder. I knew G-M well. He donated several things for me to take to 56 Squadron and I'm sure the last thing he would have wanted was for his medals to become a commercial proposition. They belong in the RAF Museum, but they are obviously destined to end up in the United States.

[trajan]

I always find myself in two minds on something like this... The fact is that - as I know from my own experience working for a museum - far too many museums have far too many objects to show, and so even with a group like this, of exceptional historic interest, it is nice that it can go to somebody who has a genuine interest in it - for whatever erason they have that interest. Yes, it would be nice from the historic point of view if they went to the RAF Museum, but I am sure that they have enough equally historic groups already to not need this one. Note that the RAF Museum's own web-site says: "The Medal collection is securely stored at London where material can be made available to researchers by appointment". And as for this particular group, if it did fall "into the hands of a dealer", and at that, one based - or so it says - in "Mona Vale, NSW, Australia", then one assumes that somebody legally owned them and so was legally free to dispose of them. The listing, by the way, has ended.

Trajan

[tomcervo]

No idea who's selling them; hope it's someone related who will use whatever money they get for something worthy. I thought the Leefe-Robinson Medal For Life was a fine gesture. But the documentary material, particularly the details about his escapes, are useful to add to An Escaper's Log, which is undeservedly long out of print.

[alex revell]

Trajan,

I'm sorry, but whether or not anything is displayed in a museum or not is irrelevant. I feel strongly that such items should belong to the nation, otherwise a vast amount of a nation's cultural heritage is lost. Are you happy that such a vast amount of literary manuscripts by some of our most famous and revered writers should end up in other countries, usually because individuals or concerns simply have the money to buy them. The sale of the Royal Aero Club pilots' certificate photographs, is a case in point. They have now gone into commercial hands, and researchers, authors and others have to pay to obtain copies. I'm sure Sir Peter Mansfield is turning in his grave. I have a letter from him circa 1960s, giving me permission to copy and use any of the RAeC photographs I wished. And I am not the only one with such permission Would that still hold if we presented it to Ancestry. I think not. They are in it for the money alone.

A friend, not a professional writer, writes books on the Georgian Navy. He can never include many photographs of the famous seamen of the era because the reproduction rights for the portraits of them, demanded by museums and art galleries, is excessive and financially unviable. So people interested in that subject are denied seeing their likenesses.

G-M and I were close friends and I can assure you that he would be appalled that such a vast amount of money has been made by an individual. Knowing him, he would have sold them himself and donated the proceeds to the RAF Benevolent fund.

[trajan]

I am certainly not happy when archival material goes into private collections. But to take a hard line, documents are one thing, but a medal is a medal is a medal. Each one has a personal connections, and I do treasure the medals I have for the stories that they tell. However, if I were to write a piece on the recipient of one of my medals, then although it would be nice to illustrate it with the very medals he was awarded, for the article itself the personal documentation is the more important. So. for example, my own grandfather's GW medals have gone AWOL (knowing him hey were probably sold!). For my own children, though, the story and the papers recording his service are more important than the actual medals.

Please don't get me wrong. Yes, it would be nice if the RAF Museum or something similar had these particular ones. But it would pain me more if the documentation went missing - which is why (not wishing to get into current politics!) I am astounded and shocked at how much of our national archive has been sold off! That one has to buy from a commercial site things like the service records of our own relatives is more scandalous, to my mind, than a set of medals going to a collector whom - one must assume - will cherish them for whatever reason.

Best regards,

Trajan