Medal group Para Regiment Vet
 

This group https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/114530815365 sold for 841GBP.
Honestly, the price seems excessive for a common medal group and a modern private beret, even with provenance. Collecting WW2 british airborne items is becoming out of proportion these days. Deep pockets required for a new hobbyist.

If you had bothered to carry out basic research on this medal group you would realise that it is not "a common medal group" by any stretch of the imagination.

Private Grundy was a member of the Third Battalion of the Parachute Regiment and was wounded in action on the 13th July 1943 during the attack on Primasole Bridge in Sicily. There are unlikely to be more than a handful of medal groups to soldiers wounded in this action where there is a named medal (providing the provenance) included in the group. In my opinion whilst the combination of medals may not be unusual, with medals, it is the recipients story that makes the difference between common or not. In this case it is not common and the price achieved reflects that (and no I didn't buy them)

PL

I would agree with Paul. Ironically although it's not a gallantry medal or a campaign medal, it's the TA medal that is the real earner for the group as a whole. The remainder are worth a fraction of that without the provenance that medal adds to the group. It's a shame the beret is a modern one and not a period one.

Yet again the power of research shines through - there is a lot to our hobby, and great enrichment by adding stories to the items where you can. In deed, a great item for any airborne collector/researcher

There is a Para Regt group in this Thursday’s sale at DNW which will, me thinks, make a little bit more than that group.
(Falklands war DCM group).
T


https://www.dnw.co.uk/auctions/catal...lot_uid=383787

I guess in the collecting world, something is only worth what someone is prepared to pay. I didn't want to sound unappreciative for what these medals represent. My preference goes to collecting objects issued during the war and directly associated with combats. If the soldier's story can be associated with them, it is even better.
Medals not being my forte, I would easily imagine that awards for gallantry command higher prices.

I sent you a PM.

To be quite honest, I don't think it was excessive, I suspect it would have done a little more if it had been offered in either of the two main London salerooms, although, commission and VAT would also subsequently had to be paid had that been the case.

I sold a group to a Border Regiment casualty KiA at Arnhem a few years ago. It had his unboxed medals and an album with photos of him during the war some of his original insignia and immediate post war pictures of his wife on the Oosterbeek pilgrimage in 1946 or 47. It was bought by a collector for just under £1k. I was surprised at the price but there is a premium around Airborne Forces which will lift the desireability considerably. You need deep pockets to collect in that sphere.

Again, I don't think that was over the top, with the unpublished photographs, my thoughts would be very nice indeed.

Mr Laycock's research ability is second to none- A very hard earned skill gained with many long trips to the public Records office at Kew this was back when researching a medal group was a skill and not just typing a name in your Google..... Paul would often do this for a small fee but would some times return with a mountain of paperwork for u .
There was the humble shoe box of 2nd war Stars and medals bit of cloth a cap badge and a rather tatty A.B64 if the dealer Paul bought this off had done even basic investigation he would have discovered this humble lot was to a Colditz prisoner ...and then there was the similar un assuming lot that turned out to be a member of S.O.E who parachuted in to Yugolavia and fought with Titos partisans for 14 months but that's another story !

I didn't think WW2 files were open to the public yet at Kew. Which made it hard to validate WW2 medal groups.
Andy

Andy,

I believe you are correct APC still hold those files I think they charge £30 for a search and copy. It would be possible to get some information from Kew if dates units and theatres were included in the AB64. In my experience they are usually quite bland but occasionally are a gold mine. I had a Singapore Death Railway PoW AB64 last year that was full of detail.

Regards

Mark

Details of who can apply here

https://www.gov.uk/get-copy-military...-elses-records

Tim

Tim would you get medal verification if you weren't next of kin.
Andy