Antiques Roadshow guest ‘overwhelmed’ at war medal collection belonging to ‘brave' grandad

WARNING: This article contains spoilers from Antiques Roadshow.

An Antiques Roadshow guest exclaimed “jeez” when he was told of the true value of his grandad’s Second World War medals collection, despite one being missing.

BBC expert Graham Lay was on hand at Durham Cathedral to take a closer look at visitors’ precious items, including a younger guest and his medals.

Lay began: “You’ve got a very interesting collection of RAF memorabilia here but what’s a young man like you doing with it?”

The guest explained: “Well these were my grandad’s medals. When he died in 1989, they were left to my grandmother and when she passed away, they were passed on to me and that’s why I’ve brought them here today.”

The guest went on to state that his grandfather had to “lie about his age”, given that he was just 17-years-old in 1939.

Elaborating on what he did during the war, he remarked: “He was a navigator, so basically co-ordinating the attacks over Germany.

“The funny thing is he couldn’t find his way to South Shields but he could navigate over the east. He always used to fight with my grandma.”

Laughing, Lay commented: “Isn’t that funny. And he was a very, very young man”, as the guest added: “Yeah no older than me.”

The expert then continued this line of thought: “If you’d gone back to the Second World War, you could have been flying in bombers like your grandfather at your age. How does that make you feel?”

“An overwhelming sense of pride to be honest, because my grandad went away not knowing if he was coming back the next day,” the guest said.

“And what we take for granted here is what they did.”

Along with a log book of all the missions his grandad had completed, the youngster also displayed a Distinguished Flying Cross.

He stated: “Well I’m led to believe he only meant to do like a certain amount of missions ranging in the 20s but he did a lot more than that, maybe double the amount of missions you’re meant to do.”

“So he maybe did 60 or so missions,” Lay pointed out.

“That’s astounding. He didn’t have to, he could have gone on to train others you see, having done his required number.

“But a lot of servicemen, a lot of air crew did actually continue and sadly, of course, many of them perished but he didn’t. He carried on through the war.”

Taking a closer look at the medals, the expert shared that they were the Air Crew Europe, the 1939-1945 Star and the War Medal.

However, there were just three medals to four ribbons, leading the owner to believe that there was a medal missing.

Lay explained: “This is the Defence Medal ribbon, so somewhere there is a Defence Medal but the good news is you can buy Defence Medals from medal dealers.

“You can find them, not everywhere, but they’re very common medals.

“They’re not named either like First World War medals are so you can easily find one and make up the complete set.”

In addition to the medals and the log book, the guest showed off a navigator badge and a cap badge which could be seen in a photograph of the grandad in question.

Holding up the picture closer to the guest, Lay pointed out “And actually, if you don’t mind me saying so, you look very similar to your grandfather. The eyes are remarkable.”

“Very proud grandson,” the guest replied.

It was then time for the all-important appraisal: “If these came up on the auction market today, if you sold them, they would sell for something in the region of £3,500 to £4,500.”

Taken back by the price, the guest pulled a face as he said: “Jeez. That’s quite a substantial total”, with Lay commenting: “It’s a testament to the bravery of a very young man.”

Finishing the segment on a heartfelt note, the guest reiterated: “It’s overwhelming. An overwhelming sense of pride.”

Antiques Roadshow is available to watch on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.