Military Medal

The first Victoria Cross awarded to a civilian is coming up for auction at Noonans on September 14.

To get an idea of the healthy nature of the medals market at the moment, consider the Victoria Cross sold at Spink (20% buyer’s premium) this summer.

Unique medal combinations will always catch a collector’s eye, particularly when accompanied by a highly emotive backstory.

The autobiography title Rake’s Progress: The Gay and Dramatic – Adventures of Major Denis Rake MC, the Reluctant British War-Time Agent perfectly sums up the story behind a group of medals on offer in East Sussex.

Bonhams has closed its coin and medals department in London and specialist John Millensted will now work as a consultant to the firm.

You reported on the front page of the ATG (No 2550) that Bonhams has added another auction house to its expanding stable.

Flight Lieutenant Maurice ‘Mark’ Mounsdon was one of only four remaining members of Sir Winston Churchill’s ‘The Few’ when he died in 2019 aged 101.

In May 2019 Spink (20% buyer’s premium) medal specialist Marcus Budgen was entrusted to catalogue the medals of Gunner A Howard, ‘N’ Battery, 5th Brigade, Royal Artillery, one of just four members of the RA present at the defence of Rorke’s Drift in the Zulu War.

A private medal collection rated by Ipswich saleroom Lockdales (18% buyer’s premium) as “magnificent” was offered on May 20-22.

The Battle of Britain or Dambusters are usually involved when it comes to sizeable Royal Air Force medal results.

A medal awarded to a member of the only Canadian battalion composed of black soldiers to serve in the First World War has sold in a London auction.

The healthy demand for top-notch medals with interesting back-stories shows no sign of decreasing, judging by recent results.

If a full-size Victoria Cross medal group is beyond your price range, a lot sold at Adam Partridge (20% buyer’s premium inc VAT) is perhaps the next best thing.

Kathleen Lynn can be seen very much as a modern woman of her time. The daughter of a County Mayo Church of Ireland rector, her upbringing was conservatively Protestant and Unionist but she became politically radicalised through her exposure to the poverty of Dublin’s slums while she studied medicine.

RAF Wing Commander Terence Helfer’s Distinguished Flying Cross citation stated: “He has undertaken many hazardous missions…”

The search for doomed explorer John Franklin grips collectors almost as much as expeditions of discovery themselves.

Dix Noonan Webb set a record for a British army Victoria Cross on June 23.

Nelson held his protégé Captain Sir William Hoste KCB (1780-1828) in high esteem.