A post-War ‘Diplomatic Wireless Service’ M.B.E. group of six awarded to Mr Arthur Halestrap, late Sapper, Royal Engineers, afterwards Royal Signals and Special Operations Executive, one of the last surviving British soldiers of the First World War who died in 2004, aged 105 The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, M.B.E. (Civil) Member’s 2nd type breast badge, silver; British War and Victory Medals (316620 Spr. A. Halestrap. R.E.); Defence and War Medals 1939-45; France, Fifth Republic, Order of the Legion of Honour, Chevalier’s breast badge, silver, silver-gilt and enamels, the first five mounted as worn, very fine or better (6) £300-£500 --- M.B.E. London Gazette 8 June 1963: ‘Arthur Halestrap, Esq., Senior Executive Officer, Foreign Office.’ Arthur Halestrap was born in Southampton on 8 September 1898. In his youth he walked the decks of the Titanic before she sailed. He tried to enlist in the British armed forces shortly after the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. His request was refused on account of his youth. However, in September 1916, he joined the Royal Engineers Signal Division and was sent to France in January 1918. After the First World War, Halestrap was employed by the Trans-Oceanic department of Marconi and worked with Cyril Evans, who had been the Californian’s wireless operator on the night of the Titanic disaster. At this time he was living in Black Notley in Essex with his wife Gladys Gwendoline. In the Second World War, he was commissioned into the Royal Corps of Signals. From 1942, he was seconded to the Special Operations Executive, which had been established to support the Resistance movements in German-occupied Europe and to carry out acts of sabotage. He did not leave England, however, and at one point was the chief signals officer at Grendon Underwood, one of the principal centres for communication with S.O.E. agents on the Continent. At the end of the war in Europe, Halestrap went to Germany as a member of the Allied Control Commission, but after a motor accident he returned to England to join the Diplomatic Wireless Service. In 1963 he was appointed M.B.E. for his work with this organisation, from which he retired in 1970 at the age of 72. For the last 20 years of his life he attended the memorial service for the fallen of the First World War at the Menin Gate, and in 1988 he received the French Legion of Honour in company with all the small band of surviving veterans who had fought in France in 1914-18. He kept in touch with the former comrades in the S.O.E., attending the reunions of the Henley Signals Unit whenever possible. He continued to appear on television documentaries into his extremely old age. In 2003, aged 105, he was the only British veteran of the First World War to attend the Armistice Day Ceremony in Ypres, where he rose from his wheelchair and, in a clear and strong voice, recited Laurence Binyon’s poem ‘For the Fallen’. Along with Harry Patch and a few others, he was featured in the 2003 television series World War 1 in Colour as well as the Last Tommy on B.B.C. 1 after his death in 2005. His wife, son and daughter all predeceased him. His son John, a 20-year old R.A.F. navigator, was killed within two months of the end of the Second World War. Arthur Halestrap died on 1 April 2004, in Kings Sutton, Northamptonshire, where he had moved to in the 1960s.
We found 48016 price guide item(s) matching your search
There are 48016 lots that match your search criteria. Subscribe now to get instant access to the full price guide service.
Click here to subscribe- List
- Grid
-
48016 item(s)/page
Vinyl Records - LP?s including The Beatles ? The Beatles ? PCS 7067 ? Numbered 0455329 - Matrix Runout ? Side A ? Stamped - YEX 709-1 , Side B ? Stamped ? YEX 710-1, Side C ? YEX 711-1, Side D ? YEX 712-1 (Gate Fold opening to the Top, Matt Black Inner Sleeves); Sgt Peppers LonelyHearts Club Band ? PCS 7027 ? Matrix Runout ? Side A ? Stamped - YEX 637-1, Side B ? Stamped - YEX 638-1 (With Original 12?x12? insert); Abbey Road ? PCS 7088 ? Matrix Runout ? Side A ? Stamped ? YEX 749-2, Side B ? Stamped ? YEX 750-1; Beatles For Sale ? PCS 3062 ? Matrix Runout - Side A ? Stamped ? YEX 142-1, Side B ? Stamped ? YEX 143-1; Please Please Me ? Matrix Runout ? Side A ? Stamped ? YEX 94-1, Side B ? Stamped ? YEX 95-1; A Hard Day?s Night ? PCS 3058 ? Matrix Runout ? Side A ? Stamped ? YEX 126-1, Side B ? Stamped ? YEX 127-1; Rubber Soul ? PCS 3075 ? Matrix Runout ? Side A ? Stamped ? YEX 178-3, Side B ? Stamped ? YEX 179-3 (7)
An early 20th Century mahogany display cabinet with figured arch panelled central door flanked by two glazed doors and side panels, 118 cm wide x 33.5 cm deep x 96 cm high, together with a pair of simulated rosewood salon chairs and a carved oak oval drop-leaf tea table on gate-leg supports
A Victorian carved oak sideboard or dresser, the plain top above two drawers and two cupboard doors with stylised carved floral decoration, 135 cm wide x 48 cm deep x 95.5 cm high, together with an oak barley-twist gate-leg drop-leaf dining table, 90 cm wide x 133 cm long x 74 cm high, a modern stained beech nest of three occasional tables, camel stool, two gilt framed wall mirrors and a carved teak sewing box
A gold-lacquer suzuribako (box for writing utensils) with en-suite cover17th centuryOf rectangular form with canted corners, bearing a dense nashiji ground and lacquered with an open gate in a garden wall with willow, maple and cherry trees in gold takamaki-e with details of kirikane, the interior lacquered in similar style with a pavilion among pine and maple trees on a rocky promontory by a lake of combed waves and the rim mounted with pewter, unsigned; without fittings; with a wood storage box. 22cm x 20.4cm x 4.2cm (8 5/8in x 8¼in x 1 5/8in). (2).Footnotes:リザーブ設定無し門図蒔絵硯箱 無銘 17世紀Provenance: purchased at Sotheby's, London, 1981.Wrangham collection, no.1534.The Edward Wrangham Collection of Japanese Art: Part II, lot 363.www.bonhams.com/auctions/19295/lot/363/Lot to be sold without reserve.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
THREE ITEMS OF JEWELLERY, to include a gate bracelet set with three circular panel settings, 9ct hallmark, length 190mm, a T-bar pendant, stamped 375, length 20mm, and a 9ct belcher link necklace chain, 9ct import mark for London, approximate total gross weight 7.2 grams (Condition report: clasp missing and gems missing to circular panel settings on the bracelet)
H. Harris (British, 1852 - 1926) Oil on Canvas, view of Tintern Abbey from across the river, signed to bottom left, 10in (25cm) x 17½in (44cm), together with another Oil on Canvas by the same hand of a boat coming toward the canal lock gate, signed to bottom left, 10½ (26cm) in x 22in (56cm) (2)
Thomas Miles Richardson Snr. (1784-1848), The Old Newgate, Newcastle, pencil and watercolour heightened with white, with hand written attribution and note verso: 'Sketch by T M Richardson of the Old Newgate, Newcastle which was used as a prison. This sketch was taken at a time when a crowd is watching at the gate to see a condemned man about to be brought out to be taken in a cart up Gallow Gate to the place of execution. The cart containing a coffin, the Sherriff and the Javelin Men, the Chaplain in a three cornered hat, and some of the buys from the Green Coat School are all to be seen in this sketch. Lent by the Rt Hon Sir Gainsford Bruce', also bears label 'The Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-upon Tyne, J Bruce Esq.', 11in x 14½in (28cm by 37cm), reframed in its original giltwood and gesso frame, dimensions including frame and mount 25in x 28in (63.5cm x 71cm), some foxing.
Loading...-
48016 item(s)/page