General Chat

This made me so angry when OH read this to me
this morning.

A war heroes widow is selling his medals to help bring
up his two children.
He was the first soldier in 26 years to be awarded the
George Medal twice, he was a bomb disposal expert
and died in 2008.

I don't suppose she is alone in this circumstance as a soldiers
widow, but it still angers me that he gave his life and his family
are left to get on with it. Sad state of affairs imo.

Emma

So much for the Prime Minister David Cameron's pledges to do much more to take care of military families - he does the talk but not the walk :-|

From what I have read I don't believe she NEEDS to sell the medals,

She appears to be selling other items and medals belonging to Gary that have very little monetary value,

As well as his George Medal and Bar, Dix Noonan are selling his General Service Medal Northern Ireland, Operational Service Medal Sierra Leone, Iraq Medal 2003, Operational Service Medal Afghanistan, NATO Medal, ISAF Medal, Jubilee 2002 Medal, Accumulated Campaign Service Medal and long service medal.

Also going to auction are three letters on Buckingham Palace notepaper from Princess Anne, colonel in chief of the Royal Logistics Corps.

The George Medal and Bar are where the value lies all the other medals are ten a penny

The auction will be held next Friday in London.


Roy

So why is she selling them Roy,surely she must
need the money for her children, otherwise she
would keep them. I could be wrong of course,
still think it's sad state to be in.

Emma

It's such a shame that she is selling the medals. I don't think I could part with such a wonderful memento of my husband, no matter how desperate I was.

It's always been the same. A widow(er) in a quarter (military housing) is given notice to quit very shortly after the partner's death. They have lost their partner and home, councils don't prioritise them and so many are left homeless and have to have help from relatives and friends.

In the 1970s a widow (Northern Ireland death) had her entitlement of a pension reduced because she was now better off as she didn't have to feed her husband.

The MOD and the government have always turned their back on the ex serviceman(woman), those injured and those left after death.

The service charities do a marvellous job. Help for Heroes, British Legion, SSAFA, , Royal Naval Association, Soldiers Benevolent Fund and Royal Air Force Association and many more.

Just remember your poppies on 11th November. It all helps.

:-)

Emma, I have no idea ( why) she is selling them, Other than telling the auctioneer that it is to give her children a BETTER future she has refused to comment.

As I said there is nothing to indicate that she NEEDS to sell



Roy

Edit if his widow was dependant on benefits then she will loose entitlement to those benefits once she has sold the medals and received the money

Thanks for that Roy.

She must have something in mind for her children,
plus she won't have the worry of keeping the medals
safe.

Emma

I can't comment on the sale as I haven't read the article but Pat's comment about the 1970's reminded me of when my husband was being sent off on a course for work we were told we would have to contribute ' as I would not be feeding him for two days - i.e saving on housekeeping'. but as he could actually eat all three daily meals at work for free I used to struggle when he was eating at home!

The way it works with medal collectors ( and the fine arts in general ) is that the more provenance and associated material the better and the higher the value realised. Thus even though some items in the sale may not be worth a great deal of money alone they do make a significant difference in the GM itself - any serious collector will go for the whole lot.

It is not uncommon ( see other posts this thread ) for widows to not feel especially positive about the army and the abysmal way it has always treated ex-soldiers. The Andrew is no better. Whether that is the case here or not is of course unknown.

Some years ago I sold a collection of Boer War medals awarded to a relative. The proceeds made quite a difference to an old lady. Is it really that shocking for medals to be sold ? imho much better than donating them to the regimental museum etc.

"There are old soldiers and bold soldiers, but few old bold soldiers".
- my grandfather's ww1 war diary

Is there an an annuity that goes with the George Medal, if not maybe there should be, if there is how much is it, either way the amount of such an annuity should be set at an amount that provide a worthwhile annual benefit, increasing each year in line with inflation, for the recipient or his widow. That is not a lot to ask for anyone who served their country with gallantry.

As Army pensions and have an affect on a widows pension/benefits and I am not up to date with how much she would have received in 2008 when he died but their is a direct link with his earnings and what she would have received then and as a widows on-going benefits,

He was a WO2 so he would be second from the top in the Army pay scales as a none commissioned officer and as a bomb disposal he would have also received some sort of trade pay on top, Being a WO2 and at his age indicates that he has served many years and was probably coming to the end of his service so I suspect she would have received quite a substantial payout plus the ongoing widows pension, Not to be confused with widows pensions of times gone by

In the Army it used to be that when you retired after 22 years service at whatever rank you collect the pension equivalent of the rank above so a WO2 would receive a WO1's equivalent pension,

Roy

for those not fluent in army "WO" means warrant officer , non-commissioned.

Bless em All, Bless em All, the long and the short and the tall
Bless all the sergeants and W. O. ones,
Bless all the corp'rals and their blinkin sons,
'Cos we're saying goodbye to them all, as back to their billets they crawl
You'll get no promotion this side of the ocean, so cheer up my lads, Bless 'em All

(Geo Formby )

Does anyone know roughly how much a medal would go for or a whole set?

Here is a recent auction which included a George Cross
http://www.paulfrasercollectibles.com/News/Medals-%26-Militaria/2010-News-Archive/Rare-George-Cross-medal-braves-the-auctioneer%27s-hammer/3296.page

As the GM in question is with bar and a whole lot of other stuff it will be north of £ 20K and poss. a great deal more. This sort of auction is usually by invitation to the usual collectors.

In that case I have seen £60k mentioned, if the lady in question is hard up then it would be a God send to her and sad as it is I'm sure her husband would encourage her to go ahead with a sale

Wonder how the children will feel in later years to know their Dad's medals have gone, tho. Maybe they are older and have indicated they don't want them, maybe they are uni age and need the help, who knows? Sad tho to see them leave the family.

Lizx