Auctions & Records
Days before Remembrance Sunday, a paratrooper officer's medals led a 770-lot sale in Mayfair.
The officer behind the medals
According to Noonans' catalogue, Parry commanded A Company of the 9th Parachute Battalion, 6th Airborne Division, in the assault on the Merville Battery in the first hours of D-Day, 6 June 1944, and was severely wounded in the leg. He jumped with the battalion again on 24 March 1945, over the Rhine. His Military Cross is officially dated 1945 on the reverse, and the group of seven was the highest-priced lot of the day.
The Merville Battery was a German coastal gun position overlooking the eastern end of the Normandy landing beaches. Silencing it before the seaborne landings was one of the 6th Airborne Division's first tasks.
The rest of the sale
Noonans offered 770 lots, from gallantry groups and campaign medals to militaria. A Naval General Service Medal with a single Trafalgar clasp, named to Stephen Barber, made £6,500, above its £4,000 to £5,000 estimate. The opening lot, the Knight Grand Cross insignia and medals of the 1st Baron Cadman, the mining engineer and petroleum technologist, made £6,500. Prices quoted are hammer prices as shown by Noonans; buyer's premium is added on top.
A medal group is a document: the name on the rim ties it to a life.
Why named groups sell well
British campaign medals are usually named on the rim to the recipient, which lets researchers trace service records, war diaries and citations. A group that can be tied to a famous action, here the Merville Battery, attracts more collectors than an unattributed single medal. Collections that stay together, with the original ribbons, boxes of issue, letters and photographs, keep that link intact.
If you have inherited medals
Do not clean or polish medals, and do not separate a group. Keep any paperwork, even a faded letter or a photograph in uniform. With Remembrance Sunday on 8 November, many families are looking again at what they hold. If you would like a free valuation of medals or other antiques, send us clear photographs of both sides and the naming on the rim.
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