Militaria & Ethnographica Sale Results

Medals were the order of the day in Tennants Auctioneers’ Militaria & Ethnographica Sale on 5^th June, with strong prices seen for lots supported by extra research material. Indeed, one particularly good Private Collection from a deceased estate saw exceptionally high prices, with each lot sold alongside material revealing details about the recipients lives and service records. The top lot of the collection was a General Service Medal 1918-62, awarded to Captain R.P.H. Burbury, D.C.L.I, a D-Day Casualty, which sold for £3,200 (plus buyer’s premium). With a Palestine clasp and MID oakleaf, the medal was sold alongside a copy of the War Diary for June 1944 noting Burbury’s death, a map and photographs. Richard Burbury was born in Barnsley and was commissioned with the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry as 2^nd Lieutenant in 1925. He was commanding the 1/South Lancashire Regiment as Lt. Colonel on the D-Day landing of 6^th June 1944 when he was killed in action.

From the same collection came a First World War/North West Frontier Group of Five Medals, awarded to Captain Norman Edward V. Kynaston of the Liverpool Regiment, who served in the Territorial Force, before transferring to the Indian Army and later returned to serve in the Liverpool Regiment. The medals, which comprised a 1914-15 Star, a British War Medal, a Victory Medal, a General Service Medal 1918-62 with MID oak leaf and S. Persia clasp, and an India General Service Medal 1909 with Afghanistan N.W.F. clasp 1919, sold for £2,500 (plus buyer’s premium).

From other vendors came strong lots such as a George Medal, awarded to civilians who show extraordinary courage in the face of enemy action, which was given to Percival Tyrrell Hague, a Corporal in the Home Guard for remarkable gallantry shown during an Air Raid over Nottingham Corporation Gas Works. After a shower of incendiaries had fallen on top of a 90ft gasholder he noticed that three of them had got lodged, so he climbed up and knocked them off. Soon afterwards, when he and a colleague, E. W Morrison, were trying to close down valves a high-explosive hit a nearby gas holder which burst into flames. Despite their clothes being on fire, they continued with their work and managed to save the chief parts of the plant. The medal and related material sold for £4,000 (plus buyer’s premium).

Elsewhere in the sale good results were seen for an 18^th century Indo-Persian Pesh Kabz, which sold for £3,000 (plus buyer’s premium), a pair of early 19^th century flintlock pocket pistols by Southall, London, which sold for £2,200 (plus buyer’s premium), and an 18^th/19^th century Indian Khanjali, which sold for £2,200 (plus buyer’s premium).

The sale resulted in a total hammer price of £136,700 for 430 lots, with an 89% sold rate.

View Sale Results