Latest News Articles by Tom Derbyshire
Exhibition marks special RAF centenary
19 November 2018In April this year Spink held an exhibition to mark the centenary of the founding of the RAF, ahead of a dedicated section in its two-day Orders, Decorations and Medals sale the same month.
Flying high with early relics
19 November 2018In this year also marking the centenary of the RAF, Bosleys’ (20% buyer’s premium) fourth annual sale of aviation collectables on September 13, held in conjunction with (and at) sister auction house Marlows in Stafford, included a large number of related items.
Preview: medal groups of five brothers who served in the Great War, with only two coming home
19 November 2018If anything sums up the sense of slaughter that came from the British experience of the First World War and how that affected so many families, it is a lot coming up in Bonhams’ November 21 Medals, Bonds, Banknotes and Coins auction.
Preview: medals sum up the 'world' status of the Great War
19 November 2018Before the Iraq invasions in 1991 and 2003 Britain was involved in military operations in the region in both world wars.
On a wing and a prayer: the early war in the air
19 November 2018A Distinguished Flying Cross medal group offered at Stroud Auctions (18% buyer’s premium) on November 7-8 underlines the sometimes rudimentary nature of the embyonic early war in the air.
Sale forms tribute to a true militaria expert
19 November 2018C&T Auctioneers’ (20% buyer’s premium) November 6 sale titled After the Great War Centenary also marked the final slice of a three-part offering of what specialist Matthew Tredwen called “one of the finest collections of First World War German militaria to have been sold at auction in the UK”.
Recruits roar into battle encouraged by a poster
19 November 2018This classic First World war recruitment poster with the Old Lion of Britain calling on the Young Lions to answer the call to fight is estimated at £200-400 in Onslows’ poster auction on December 14.
Forget me not with a sweetheart brooch
19 November 2018A popular form of gift or memento to loved ones as troops left for the front was a ‘sweetheart brooch’.
Preview: Hundred Days Offensive medal group
19 November 2018The Hundred Days Offensive broke the back of German resistance in 1918 and by November the Allies were surging well beyond the once static Western Front.
First World War: they also served
19 November 2018British Empire soldiers included more than a million Indian Army troops serving overseas.
Measuring up for Great War action
19 November 2018Such was the scale of the Great War that the Cameronians regiment alone raised 27 battalions from 1914-18.
Machine guns gain dedicated units
19 November 2018As soon as the devastating power of machine guns in the First World War became clear, the British Army abandoned its earlier policy of attaching a section of just two guns to each infantry battalion or cavalry regiment.
Engineer works out how to keep a torpedo straight
19 November 2018It was a British engineer, Robert Whitehead (1823-1905) – working in Austria at the instigation of the Austrian Navy – who developed the first self-propelled torpedo in the 1850s.
First World War Armistice centenary: We will remember them
19 November 2018The centenary of the Armistice has been marked by the appearance of some poignant lots at auction revealing the human cost.
First World War veteran was also Polar explorer
19 November 2018The ‘heroic age’ of Polar Exploration coincided with the First World War. Shackleton’s perilous 1914-17 expedition was conducted against the backdrop of war in the northern hemisphere, while other earlier Polar explorers found themselves caught up in the conflict.
War’s human cost after the battle ends
19 November 2018The vast human toll of the First World War did not end with the Armistice. On New Year’s Eve 2018 Oberleutnant Friedrich Ritter Von Röth committed suicide at the age of 25, as a result of being shattered at Germany’s defeat.
Neil Armstrong moon landing memorabilia up at auction in Dallas
10 November 2018In 1903 the Wright Brothers put into the air the first successful aeroplane. Sixty-six years later Neil Armstrong became the first man on the moon – carrying with his mission a piece of the propeller and section of the wing fabric from that pioneering aircraft.
Original comic artwork from the fantastic Bob Monkhouse Archive comes to auction
08 November 2018Bob Monkhouse was loved as one of the best comedians and presenters of his generation but few people know about the huge respect he is also held in by comic collectors.
Former Manchester United chairman Harold Hardman’s Olympic gold medal sells in Oxford
05 November 2018Harold Hardman’s journey from amateur footballer and solicitor to chairman of Manchester United in the era of the Busby Babes is a fascinating story in itself. But a medal coming up for auction in Oxford adds even more appeal.
Olympic football gold medal from 1908 won by later Manchester United chairman in Busby Babes era comes up at auction
27 October 2018Harold Hardman’s journey from amateur footballer and solicitor to chairman of Manchester United in the era of the Busby Babes is a fascinating story in itself. But a medal coming up for auction in Oxford on November 14 adds even more appeal.