I had the privilege of meeting and corresponding with Graham Lay. He was a nice guy, knowledgeable, and easy to talk to. He had problems with his breathing and always carried an oxygen cylinder with him. He collected military manuals and, if I recall correctly, before his time with Wallis and Wallis had headed the militaria department at Sotheby's.
I enjoyed his enthusiasm and wish more of the so called "experts" were like him. He may have got prices wrong, but what is anything really worth? - it is worth what someone is prepared to pay for it and more if two people want it badly enough at an auction!
You can sense his enthusiasm in an email to me in December 2014: "...I don't know if you watched the Antiques Roadshow a couple of weekends back from Tredegar, when I was talking to a chap who was in a very small team on Operation Tarbrush, just
before D-Day. He was captured and was taken before Rommel in a chateau in Northern France before being taken to a POW camp. We are making a Christmas Special, to be recorded on Thursday, and I will be talking to him again, but this time about his experiences at Christmas 1944 in the POW camp. He was captured with George Lane the leader of the Tarbrush operations. A really fascinating chap..." Unfortunately Graham was too ill to do the Christmas Special.
A nice guy, sadly missed...
Keith
__________________
I collect badges and medals of London Transport employees and its predecessor and successor companies, bus, tram, trolleybus, underground railway.
Last edited by popskipa; 20-06-17 at 01:03 PM.
|