Is there nothing that can be done?

[Canary Boy]

From the Torygraph:Fighter ace sells medals to spare wife long wait for hip replacement (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/12/08/nduke08.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/12/08/ixportal.html)

Surely this situation should not have been allowed to get to this point? As it has, what would be the best course to follow to ensure that the money can be raised by some other means? RAFA perhaps?

[PPRuNeUser0211]

Canary,

Strikes me that he's already sold up? Though it did say the medals and bits raised over £100K and only £8K required for the hip. The remainder used for security on their house etc,

Does seem a bit off though, but at least the collection will be kept together (no kids on their part)

[charliegolf]

Would be great if the new owner gave the Dukes what I think is called a 'life interest' in the stuff, only to take ownership physically after their passing.

CG

[brakedwell]

After being burgled three time at least he won't have to worry about his medals being stolen now. What a wonderful country we live in!
Here is the Telegraph article.

Fighter ace sells medals to spare wife long wait for hip replacement
By Neil Tweedie
(Filed: 08/12/2005)

One of the most decorated British fighter pilots of the Second World War has sold his medals, diaries and other memorabilia partly to pay for a hip replacement operation for his wife who faced at least a six-month wait on the National Health Service.

Sqn Ldr Neville Duke, 83, the Royal Air Force's top-scoring ace in the Mediterranean theatre who set a world air speed record of 728 mph in 1953, put the collection up for auction rather than subject his wife Gwen to months of pain and discomfort while she waited for an operation.

Squadron Leader Neville Duke
The standard waiting time for hip replacements in the orthopaedic department at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital, one of the nearest facilities to the Dukes' home, is six months.

Mrs Duke, who has been in pain with her hip for eight months, was told by her chiropractor that the wait might be 15 months.

Before the sale Mrs Duke, 85, explained: "It is very likely I will need a new hip and that is something we just cannot afford. If I went on a NHS waiting list I would have to wait forever, and at my age that's no good.

'By selling Neville's things we will be able to pay for the hip. We pulled out of BUPA because they practically doubled the rate when we reached 60.

"There are other important reasons, such as security, for selling. He's very upset about it."

In the event, the auction at Dix Noonan Webb in Mayfair raised £138,000, some £8,000 of which would be required for an operation. The medals went to a private British collector.

Sqn Ldr Duke's DSO, awarded in the field after he shot down seven enemy aircraft in seven days, DFC and two bars, Air Force Cross and OBE for his achievements as a test pilot for Hawker form one of the finest collections of medals accrued by a pilot of his generation.

The lots also included the ripcord he pulled when he baled out for the second time in the war and came near to drowning in an Italian lake after almost falling out of his harness.

Sqn Ldr Duke said the decision to sell the medals was a hard one but had been forced upon him by worries about his wife's condition, security at the family home following three burglaries, the cost of insuring the collection and the desire to keep it together, the couple having no children.

The couple lost silverware in the break-ins including cups won in air races, but the thieves missed Sqn Ldr Duke's silver Hunter marking his record.

"It was never going to be easy to make a decision about the future of my flying career memorabilia, but following careful consideration I decided that it would be best to sell everything at auction in my lifetime," he said.

Still an active pilot after 65 years, Sqn Ldr Duke flew 485 sorties in the war, shooting down 27 aircraft and sharing two more kills, a performance that placed him in the league of pilots such as "Bob" Stanford Tuck and second only to "Johnnie" Johnson.

During his tour in North Africa he was shot down by the Luftwaffe ace Otto Schulz, but managed to crash land.

In September 1953 he took the world air speed record from the Americans when his all-red Hawker Hunter reached 728 mph over Tangmere, Kent.

The helmet he wore during the flight was among the items sold.

The most entertaining lots are his diaries, recording a Boys Own career.

One entry from North Africa records his shooting down of a Me109: "Got in a burst from the stern quarter and its hood and pieces of fuselage disintegrated. Machine went into vertical dive and pilot baled out. Flew round and round the pilot until he landed, then went down to look at him. I waved to him and he waved back.

"Poor devil thought I was going to strafe him as he initially dived behind a bush."

One entry on being shot down: "Saw the ground rushing up and then kicked the rudder and pushed the stick forward and prayed. Got control just in time and the machine hit the ground on its belly.

"Hopped out jolly quick and then darted behind some scrub and lay on my belly.

"The Hun came down and shot-up my machine. Horrible crack and whistle of bullets near me and I thought I was going to be strafed but the Hun cleared off."

And in happier times in London: "Released for the day (7 October 1941). Went up to town in the CO's car with Hunk and babe Whitmore. Called on Burberry's, visited the Crackers and saw usual females.

"Had tea at the Trocadero and then saw film Man Hunt. Went along to the Ritz 'Rivoli' Bar and had a few snifters.

"Beetled into the Berkeley for dinner then staggered along to Hatchett's for a nightcap."

[c-bert]

In September 1953 he took the world air speed record from the Americans when his all-red Hawker Hunter reached 728 mph over Tangmere, Kent.

I believe a map is in order at Telegraph towers.....

[derekl]

Today's Telegraph article by Tom Utley summed my feelings exactly.

Is this any way to treat a war ace? (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2005/12/09/do0902.xml&sSheet=/opinion/2005/12/09/ixopinion.html)

Is this any way to treat a war ace?
By Tom Utley
(Filed: 09/12/2005)

Most of us share the same feelings when we read that a war hero has been driven to sell his medals in order to make ends meet in his old age. We feel sadness, because we know what a painful wrench it must be for an old man to part with the physical evidence of his youthful heroism, and such a just source of pride.


If you are like me, you will also feel a flash of anger - and perhaps a touch of shame - at the thought that we have been so ungrateful as to allow people who have risked so much for us to come to this. Above all, we feel a sense of wrong: a war hero's medals belong on his own chest, and not in the display cabinet of a collector who has braved nothing more for them than signing a cheque.

I was particularly moved by the story of Squadron Leader Neville Duke, which appeared in yesterday's paper. He was the top-scoring fighter ace in the Mediterranean theatre during the Second World War, who shot down 27 enemy aircraft and shared two more kills during his 485 operational sorties.

For his heroism, he was awarded the DSO, the DFC (with two bars) and the AFC. After the war, he was appointed an OBE for his work as a test pilot for Hawker, during which he took the world air speed record from the Americans, when he flew a Hunter jet over southern England at 728 mph. Yesterday, it emerged that Sqn Ldr Duke, now 83, had sold his medals and other wartime memorabilia, raising £138,000 for them at auction.

We are told that Sqn Ldr Duke had many reasons for the sale. One of them was that his wife Gwen, whom he married in 1947, had suffered eight months of discomfort from a dodgy hip. Her chiropractor had told her that she might have to wait as long as 15 months for an operation on the NHS. A private hip-replacement could be done much more quickly, but this could cost as much as £8,000. Another reason was that the Dukes had been burgled three times, and were afraid that the medals might be stolen next time. I shall return to that in a moment.

In the reports that I have read of the case, Sqn Ldr Duke himself played down his wife's need for an operation when he explained his decision to sell his medals. His main reasons, he said, were his worries about the rapidly increasing cost of insuring the collection, and his desire to keep it together after his death. He also welcomed the financial security that the money would bring him in the years that were left to him. Perhaps I am being over-sentimental, but this seemed to me to speak volumes about his love of his wife. He seemed to be telling her: "Don't blame yourself, darling. It's not because of your poor old hip that I'm selling the silly things. I would have done it anyway."

If I am right, then Sqn Ldr Duke is absolutely typical of the stoical generation that defeated the Nazis. You get a flavour of the man in the wartime diaries that he sold along with his medals, his flying helmet and the parachute ripcord that he pulled when he baled out of his flak-damaged Spitfire over Italy in 1944.

One entry describes the day when he shot down a Messerschmidt 109 over North Africa: "Got in a burst from the stern quarter and its hood and pieces of fuselage disintegrated. Machine went into vertical dive and pilot baled out. Flew round and round the pilot until he landed, then went down to look at him. I waved to him and he waved back. Poor devil thought I was going to strafe him, as he initially dived behind a bush."

Another attractive aspect of Duke's character shines through his description of a night out in London during a rare day off in October 1941: "Went up to town in the CO's car with Hunk and Babe Whitmore. Called on Burberry's, visited the Crackers and saw usual females. Had tea at the Trocadero and then saw film Man Hunt. Went along to the Ritz Rivoli Bar and had a few snifters. Beetled into the Berkeley for dinner, then staggered along to Hatchett's for a nightcap."

My schoolfriends and I, brought up in the first post-war generation, worshipped fighter aces such as Sqn Ldr Duke. These men seemed to embody every imaginable virtue: courage, kindness, modesty, humour and a love of life. It was dinned into us that we owed everything that Britons hold dear to these few.

That brings me back to the three burglaries at Sqn Ldr Duke's house, which drove up his insurance premiums and helped persuade him to sell his medals. Yes, I know that we should be angry about the inefficiency and exorbitant cost of the NHS, which keeps so many suffering patients like Mrs Duke waiting so long for the treatment that they need. But at least the NHS was conceived with only the best intentions.

I reserve my full fury for the burglars who broke into the Dukes' house, motivated only by malice and greed. Perhaps they did not know that the old man who lived there, and whose hard-earned trophies they were stealing, was a war hero. But, my God, how much they owed to him, and what a way to repay their debt.

I realise that Sqn Ldr Duke, who still enjoys flying, is not destitute - and he would be the last to claim that he is. But what a tragedy it is that he should feel driven to sell his medals by the behaviour of people who were born to the freedom that he helped to secure for them. I hope that, when all the bills are paid, he and his wife will have money left over from the sale of his medals for a treat. They, of all people, deserve another snifter or two at the Ritz.

[joe2812]

As innocent as the buyer is, I wonder how the collector would feel after reading this.

Absolutely disgraceful.

[SASless]

Joe,

If I run into your daughter at a bar and she invites me around to her flat afterwards.....am I the one who warrants criticism?

The sad commentary is the crime being perpetrated against innocent people by the criminal element. The rest is simply a story of how old soldiers get treated by the very society that owes them so much.

[FJJP]

joe 2812

I, too, am first post-war generation. I feel very sad about the whole affair, but there is another way of looking at Sqn Ldr Duke's actions:

"No children, therefore release the equity on my valuable collection that my wife and I might enjoy the spare cash.

With some of the cash, accelerate the timescale for my wife's operation, also going private for the extra luxury treatment.

Beef up security on the property.

Still leaves a substantial sum in the bank for a good holiday or two, plus a steady trickle from the balance to enhance our quality of living."

It is not unlike that time in one's life when suddenly your previous financial planning bears fruit, where endowments start to mature and the lump sums are available to eat chunks out of the mortgage, or pays for the always-wanted car, or the expensive holiday, etc.

Like many, I tend to hoard mementos, only to glance at them once in a blue moon. Whilst it would be sad to lose them, if one of them had a value such as those of Sqn Ldr Duke's, I would be mightily tempted to do as he did - after all, if my house burned to the ground and I had to start again, I would have to quickly get over the loss.

The emphasis by the press on Mrs Dukes operation is probably an excuse at Government bashing on the NHS issues.

I don't blame the collector. After all, although the items are out of sight to the public, they were not available previously anyway. And he is preserving the collection intact and in this country. You never know, he might just lend them to the RAF or IWMs.

[joe2812]

Oh no, I don't blame the collector for buying them at all.

I just thought that maybe the collector could at least offer to let the previous owner hold onto his medals, taking ownership only after he passed away.

Obviously the collector did nothing wrong, but reading this i'd feel at least a twinge of guilt.