Major R S Croot
 

A few years back I was fortunate enough to buy a WW2 Army Air Corps hallmarked silver officers cap badge with provenance. Inside the little red leather box was a photograph of a Glider Pilot wearing battledress with pilots wings on, GLIDER PILOT REGt blue shoulder titles, Pegasus and AIRBORNE strips.
The label attached said "Mjr R S Croot (Robert Shirley)",
IT wasn't cheap and I had to sell on my identical AAC silver cap badge, even down to the "J R G & S" and Anchor, Lion, "S" hallmarks and brooch type fitting. Was this a common modification for officers who didn't want 3 large loops protruding into their forehead?
Research into the officer produced a few other bits of information. He had commanded G squadron GPR at Arnhem and been awarded the Bronze Lion by the Dutch. His luck ran out when the Dakota he was on crashed near Mijaneson on the 5th December 1944 and he is buried in the Mazargues War Cemetery, Marseilles, 3.C.36

The reason I writing this because over the weekend a medal box and slip was seen on an electronic auction site, to the same officer. After it went past my limit I wrote to the seller telling the above story and offering copies of the photos below to the buyer.
Regards,

Ian H

Ian
Lovely item, great provenance. A shame the grouping was broken up, but appears par for the course ... increasingly so these days. Very nice to see and hoping the purchases of box and slip reciprocate be sending you good images too.
Mike

Major R S Croot
 

I may be wrong but I think it possible that the medal box may be one of those that came out of the woodwork about 25 years ago. A lot of them were named to Arnhem casualties or Airborne officers.

You have the most interesting item by far. It would be interesting to know where Major Croot's medal group is.

Cheers

Arnhem

It is certainly not so unusual to see these badges broached, I dare say a great many were subsequently given to wives and girlfriends, but, some were deliberately done for the officer/warrant officer concerned to actually wear on his beret, you often encounter the remains of east silver loop after it was converted into a "hook" with the remaining two loops removed and the pin/hinge added.

" The reason I writing this because over the weekend a medal box and slip was seen on an electronic auction site, to the same officer. After it went past my limit "

no need to clench and unclench fists underneath the sheets, the items are duff. people really need to be savvy, they really do when spending their gelt.

Silverwash - interesting observation - you've lobbed a grenade in the Salmon pool there
Given your expertise with HMSilver items - are you saying the badge is not a good one? - Thoughts appreciated.

crossed wires, the items I am referring to are the medal box and condolence slip.

post script :

from The Medals Year Book, An Auction Review, 1993-1994.

" particulary if the recipient was in any way associated with a well - known incident. Sadly, however, with the advent of some extremely dangerous copy condolence slips and boxes of issue, this pretext has become yet more important. The mind boggles at the lowliness of the people who are involved in this disgraceful deceit ".

following the passage of time, many unwary souls fall into the pit.

Major R S Croot
 

Don't be so quick to condemn. The chap selling it had a couple of boxes and was just selling them on. I corresponded with him and he had no idea why one seemed more popular than the other. He said very early on he would give most of the money to the Royal British Legion. He was staggered at the interest and then the amount of money the box and slip raised.He did not know of Croots history. The box and slip certainly appeared absolutely correct, I was interested, indeed 2 people fought a battle to get their hands on it.

Ian H

all that glisters is not gold !

How much did the badge in the original post actually cost and what was the winning bid for the box and slip?

Dear all, this is my first time posting, i purchased the condolence slip and box to Major Croot and they arrived today, it is in no way "duff" or fake i have been collecting 20 years and own many many condolence slips i have been burned once with a condolence slip but kept it anyway as a good reference to the fakes out there, as ian67military mentioned he as well as i have been in contact with the buyer and the items were purchased at a carboot sale and he has generously given 75% of the proceeds to the poppy appeal.

Major R S Croot
 

So if we look at what has come on the market "recently", we have his cap badge together with original photo, and if you google "R S Croot glider pilot" there is a post from somebody on another forum about acquiring his beret and badges, and now we have a medal box and slip.
It looks to me as though a Croot family member has passed on, and for whatever reason all the artefacts have hit the market. I wonder what happened to the medals? Did the family decide to keep them or are they also out there somewhere? If so were they kept together as a group or have they also been scattered? Would any of them have been named? Obviously not the 39/45 star, other star(s?), Defence or War, but I don't think TDs are named and I have no idea about Dutch medals. I note he was in a "county regiment" before he joined the GPR, so perhaps the group is unrecognised as such?
Most house clearances and relatives don't recognise the importance of provenance.
Sometimes collectors just get "lucky", and the more one learns and looks, the "luckier" one can get. How many times have we spent ages looking through hundreds of bits of worthless tat to discover a stunning "lucky find"? Spoken to dozens of friends/ relatives only to discover Great Aunt Bulgaria has a presentation RN sword in an upstairs cupboard (yes, it's happened to me).
Regards, and keep being lucky...
Ian H

here endeth the lesson !

Ian is correct, I have been to many carboots and have had some very lucky finds especially paperwork as this seems to pass relatives by unlike medals which obviously look to have intrinsic value.
I'm not sure what you mean by your quote "you can't please everyone" silverwash??