78 Sqn Silverware

[dctyke]

Hope you don't mind me placing this on the forum:

Any serving member of 78 Sqn may be interested to know there is a nice piece of Sqn memorabilia for sale on ebay, item no 180426504543. It's a solid silver tray presented to the Sqn in 1940. I think it would look much better back in the Sqn display cabinet!

I often wonder how valuable items manage to escape into the public domain, is it sold off when they get too much?

[Rigga]

More likely to have disappeared during the 78 Sqn disbandments when it was likely to have been dumped/discarded as unwanted and picked up as a useful tray for someone's quarters.

It would suggest it may only look good in a cabinet if it meant something to someone and, right now, it may not.

[Melchett01]

dctyke,

Interesting that something like that should turn up on ebay. I say that having been the Mess silver member at Benson when 78 Sqn reformed there, so I had the inventory of what we had in the Mess.

A few years back, the rules on Mess property changed and if Messes wanted to get rid of items that had been donated, then they had to jump through various hoops, one of which was to go back to the original donor or their next of kin and give them first refusal. That change of rules put the skids on our plan to 're-cycle' much of our old and damaged silver into a shiny new piece as there was no way we had the time or resources to comply with such a rule.

That this piece has ended up on ebay suggests that either it has gone back to Wg Cdr Harrison's next of kin, possibly 'snaffled' from sqn / stn silver store or forgotten about at some point over the years, most likely during a move or disbandment. Not sure there is much that can be done about it, just a shame to see current Sqn silver being sold off to the highest bidder.

[TheWizard]

£325?!
That's going to give the 'crewroom fairies' the wrong idea.
If anyone wants to buy it and donate it back to the original owners then it would be more than welcome I'm sure.

Sadly,the DSA have been flogging the family silver for quite a while now. :sad:

[Rigga]

DC and Melchy,

I think you missed my point -

How many times has 78 disbanded since the 1940's?

When did the rules for accounting for silverware change?


It was likely to be unnaccounted for, and in private hands, before 78 re-formed in the Falklands 1984.

[Pontius Navigator]

Melchett, not silver but property none-the-less. It was quite fashionable to 'abandon' one's tankard in one's last aircrew mess, for instance if posted to Command or Group, on the basis that one expected to return.

At Waddo there was an amazing collection hanging from the bar ceiling. Of course bars get remodelled, new brooms sweep clean etc etc.

[A2QFI]

Where does disbanded Sqns and unit's silver etc go now, before it appears on ebay? I think it used to be stored at Quedgley? There used to be some David Shepherd original paintings in the OM at Eastleigh; I think DS was given trips up country to do his paintings and presented some to the mess. I wonder where they are now. Aren't there a couple of Wilkinson Swords missing? Presented as trophies or annual awards in the past?

[Fareastdriver]

Read a story when I was packing up 110 Sqn's silver yonks ago.
Just after the war when dozens of RAF squadrons had been disbanded all the silver was stored at RAF Mildenhall in hangers. Quite a lot of it. One day a couple of three-tonners drove up to the guardroom and the plods were presented with authorisation to remove a considerable quantity of said silver. They were waved on their way and a few days later the war surplus three-tonners were found abandoned. Not the silver though.

[The Helpful Stacker]

A2QFI - The RAF silver store moved from RAF Quedgley when it closed to RAF Stafford. I'm not sure if they are still there on the outlying site they used or if they moved when 16MU RAF Stafford closed, the the logistics organisation became a greenish shade of purple and (unbelievably) less reliable.

[hello1]

Silver store is still at Stafford. After wandering through a maze of passages past all sorts of interesting and valuable stuff you finally end up at a collection of crappy office cabinets 'Ere we are, 'ave a look in 'ere'. The sense of anti-climax is stunning. The cabinets are filled with a bunch of crappy old dented silver with the odd collection from a disbanded sqn with a relatively decent past.

[Rigga]

....would that be 78 sqn then?







I'll get me coat....