Royal bodyguard’s collection
There’s an interesting auction at Stamford Auction Rooms in March with the memorabilia from the estate of Royal Bodyguard, Kenneth Mayer, which includes numerous items of militaria. To start with, there’s Kenneth’s own set of medals and decorations, together with boxed miniatures. There is a Queen’s Police Medal, awarded 1978; 1939-45 Star and 193945 War medals from WWII; Police Long Service Medal; Ethiopian Order of Menelik II 1965; Sudanese Order of the two Niles 1965, three with the original presentation boxes. The Order of Memelik the Second, by His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I Emperor of Ethiopia and The Order of Two Niles by The President of the Supreme Council of The Sudan awards are each accompanied by Buckingham Palace official recognition by HM The Queen in the original envelopes, one dated 9 June 1965, the other dated 16 July 1965. The estimate is £600£800.
There are some WWI medals as well, with a British
War medal and a Victory medal named to AA Nimmo. These comes with various other items to the same person - a silver military wristwatch engraved with monogram ‘AAN’, together with Army-issue Heath & Co
Ltd of London field binoculars and case, and Officer’s Record of Services Army book to Lieutenant Adam Arthur Nimmo. Estimate is £200-£400.
Another named collection next, with Royal Air Force memorabilia to pilot Obla R Ramamoorthy, to include Service and Release book; two Pilot's Flying Log Books, dating from 1941 to 1945, recording his time with 567 Squadron flying Spitfires, Hurricanes and other types of plane; original portrait and group photographs depicting Ramamoorthy; his Trinity College Kandy certificate; RAF tie; medals for France and Germany, the
Air Crew Europe Star, 19391945 Star and War Medal.
Estimate is £400-£600.
More air force related items, with a WWII era pilot’s wristwatch by Olma, with the original tag attached and leather strap. Estimate is a stiff £600-£800. There’s also a pair of WWI style flying goggles with red lenses.
Red lenses help block blue light, increasing depth of field and detail, reducing eye strain. Handy when fighting for your life in the skies above the trenches. The estimate is £30-£50.
An interesting piece of militaria up next, it’s the telescope M70.F from a Sherman tank. Could be yours for £30£50. Another inexpensive lot contains two Victorian powder flasks, one in leather the other in brass. Estimate for the pair is £20-£30. Or, how about two belt plates for the 27 and 52 Regiment of Foot. These tidy little items are estimated to fetch £30£50. On a similar theme, there is a Liverpool Scottish cross belt plate for an officer, together with a helmet plate.
These are expected to reach £50-£80.
Expecting to achieve rather more is a Household Cavalry Trooper uniform, complete with belt, helmet sporting a red plume and a pair of shiny black boots. You’ll need to dig deep for this one, at £1,500-£2,000.
Some German WWII items now, starting with a German mess tin. In fairly battered condition, but still with a measure of paint, the estimate is a lowly £20-£30 but it will surely fetch more than that. As might the next items if genuine, as this lot contains a Third Reich motorcycle club badge and a Kuban campaign shield badge. The estimate of £70-£100 will be far too low.
The next item certainly raises more questions than it answers. It’s a Waffen-SS Officer’s silver ring with an ‘800’ stamp. But that’s all the details provided here. The auction house likes it though, with an estimate of £300-£500. That’s more than can be said about a fairly abject looking Kriegsmarine War Destroyer badge, which even the estimate of £70-£100 seems somewhat optimistic. Rounding things off, here’s a WWII style Panzer 12th Division car plate/ wall plaque with an estimate of £80-£100.