JFK-signed matchbook to go under the hammer
A MATCHBOOK signed by US president John F Kennedy just nine days before he was assassinated, is to be sold at auction in Edinburgh this month.
JFK signed the memento for Fred Holmes, the youngest member of the Black Watch pipes and drums regimental band, who performed for the president and his family on the lawn of the White House on 13 November 1963.
Mr Holmes, who was just 18 at the time, told how the matchbook was all he had in his sporran when Kennedy unexpectedly climbed aboard their tour bus to thank them in person. The performance was the last time the Kennedy family was seen together in public before the president was shot dead while driving through Dallas, Texas.
The signed matchbook, a tour book signed by members of the pipe band, a commemorative glass ashtray and three rare photographs, will be sold at Lyon & Turnbull’s auction on January 13, where they are expected to fetch £1,500£2,000. Mr Holmes, 70, said he had kept the prized items in his home in Nairn, in the Highlands, for 52 years. Now the former regimental drummer hopes they will find another good home.
He said: “We saw the president when we performed but never thought we would meet him. It wasn’t until afterwards, when we were leaving, Kennedy came on to the bus with Dean Rusk, the secretary of State.
“He came on to thank us and I just went up to him. I was in full Highland dress and the only thing I had in my sporran for him to sign was a book of matches with the White House on it.
“I think he said ‘yeah, no problem’, but his pen had run out.
“It was Dean Rusk who produced a pencil. I was only 18-years-old.”
Lyon & Turnbull specialist Cathy Marsden said: “This is a special collection, all the more poignant because they come from the last days of Kennedy’s life.
“It’s been kept safe for all these years. We expect interest from both sides of the Pond.”