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Clearing the wife’s late uncle’s flat and found a load of stuff that he had pilfered in his time in the TA during the 1960s.
Gas mask with filter and anti-dimming compound, webbing, map case, puttees and so on. I’m aware that the filter could contain various nasties, so I won’t be messing with it or putting the mask on.
Have contacted a couple of specialist dealers as they would have an idea what to do with it.
Also found some playing cards depicting miserable looking women in a selection of naked poses.
What is the weirdest thing that you have inherited?
...and a signed picture of Tommy Cooper.
There was a good thread on this on BSky recently. Mostly centring on where the explosives had come from…
https://bsky.app/profile/dreadships.bsky.social/post/3miozvrco522u
Thankfully I suspect he wasn't trusted with large calibre live ammunition. Having known him for 20 odd years I suspect his role in the military would involve being on the receiving end of it.
Not quite an inheritance but an heirloom I suppose.
In my teenage years I was visiting my cockney gran (who coined the phrase 'Chemi-Khazi' to describe the toilet in our families static caravan - thats my inheritance)
Anyway I followed her round the local shops in Woodford. In the butchers I was quite surprised we were served by George Vella - who anyone with insomnia at the time would recognise as the guy who did the 6AM 'Fishing Forecast' on TV-AM - Nick and Anne referredto him as 'The Codfather'. Obviously working in breakfast telly you finished early enough to also be able to have a day job 🙂
Afterwards I tried to explain who he was but she wasn't really getting it.
A few weeks later a letter from her turned up - A signed TV-AM headshot of George accompanied by a shake note (my gran had Parkinson's) saying 'You were right - the Godfather (sic) is my Butcher. He remembers you. Thought you was looking at him funny.'
Where did the live tank round come from?
we recently had the bombsquad come hairing up our road to deal with a live 'heirloom' someone discovered in their parent's garden shed
What is the weirdest thing that you have inherited?
Dad was RAF, he had a weird collection of tat including but not limited to a landing gear selector handle from a Vampire, a couple of shell cases from the GAU-8 (the gun in an A10) endless 'remove before flight' tags and bits of test equipment that I have no idea what they actually test - 'something something' radar i suspect. I also have a "bit of the Berlin wall" that was bought from a street stall in Berlin, how authentic it actually is is probably moot.
GAU-8 (the gun in an A10)
Not so much "in" as just the gun which "is" an a10.
Hmm I found a box of 303" Blank ammunition in my late FiL collection of stuff. I still have it some where as I'm not sure what to do with it :o)
Hmm I found a box of .303" Blank ammunition in my late FiL collection of stuff. I still have it some where as I'm not sure what to do with it :o)
Post it back to WW1? It fitted those fine old Lee-Enfields just nicely.
Oh, just re-read... 'blanks'. Maybe not then, but send it back to 1977, when we were happily using it in the school CCF, in WW1-era Lee-Enfields. Post live firing on the Wrekin range, we all had to say, "I declare I have no live rounds or empty cases in my possession, Sir!" to the range officer (but it appears I may have a whole box of blanks)
What is the weirdest thing that you have inherited?
If you mean genuinely inherited, an old issue penknife that is long past its best, only thing is I have no idea where it is. Might have lost it in our house move.
But if you mean, didn't return, or permanently redeployed for another use. A few odds and sods.
Standard things I could keep as a matter of course like mess dress and miniatures. Mostly because I paid for them. 🤣
Kept my instructor and specialist qualification badges from my service dress.
The largest volume of things I kept were maps. Mostly from Iraq and Afghanistan, so a couple of the spot maps and area of operations maps, some a bit battered. Some still new. I just haven't got around to framing them yet.
There's a few other bits and bobs that are sat up in the spare room. They don't go with the aesthetic of the home so Ms RM has banished them.
Maybe not then, but send it back to 1977, when we were happily using it in the school CCF, in WW1-era Lee-Enfields.
We we still using .303 in Bren guns in my school's CCF up until 1992! At that point the Brens were replaced by LSWs (and I had a fun day at the range burning through last few hundred rounds of .303)
@relapsed_mandalorian I expect most people have some stuff lying about, like in my case a couple of pairs of steaming bats and an S10. Hanging on to my uniform as it turns out I'm still liable for recall for at least another 7 years and probably longer...
We we still using .303 in Bren guns in my school's CCF up until 1992! At that point the Brens were replaced by LSWs (and I had a fun day at the range burning through last few hundred rounds of .303)
You weren't at school in Glasgow by any chance?
Just had an offer from a Militaria dealer for the gas mask and webbing. It'll be packed and gone very shortly.
@relapsed_mandalorian I expect most people have some stuff lying about, like in my case a couple of pairs of steaming bats and an S10. Hanging on to my uniform as it turns out I'm still liable for recall for at least another 7 years and probably longer...
I didn't bother with clothing or boots that were issued. I did sell most of my non-pussers kit to the keen lads in the unit as I left. Although I was S10 into that fancy GSR era. But they definitely wanted that back, I'd have kept it if not.
If they recall me, they're going to be very disappointed in what turns up. 🤣
But there's no way I'm disclosing on the internet if I kept any proper gizzits...
But I do have a couple of bits of a helicopter because why not? Pics to follow.
Just had an offer from a Militaria dealer for the gas mask and webbing. It'll be packed and gone very shortly.
Winner. Some ardent collectors out there.
Bonkers to think my era stuff will be sought after by collectors in a few more years.
I’ve got the tags my gran had volunteered to label casualties and corpses with in the aftermath of a nuclear war
I inherited a 1970s sofa, scratched by the cat, stained with various drinks, stuffing absolutely shagged, really uncomfortable to sit on. I was going to cut it up and take it down the tip, but a dealer persuaded me to put it in his auction (lovely patina apparantly), it went for over a grand. Bizzarre.......................
"I have no rockets in my pockets or schermooleys by my goodies, sir"
What is the weirdest thing that you have inherited?
Well my dad apparently had a pistol that looked like it dated from WW2 era. Not that it quite got passed on to me, my mum dropped it off at the police station. His father had been in the merchant navy, maybe that's where it came from but we have no real idea.
(my father owned a shotgun legally through his adult life but got rid of that a while back - the pistol never came up in conversation, my mother was quite surprised to find it)
I’ve got the tags my gran had volunteered to label casualties and corpses with in the aftermath of a nuclear war
If only you had a bunker to keep them in.
This was my spot-map was from 2008, in use during Charge of the Knights.
The Americans had to come down from Baghdad to support the Iraqi army in routing out the insurgency that had taken hold in the city due to the very one-sided ceasefire that Gordon Brown 'negotiated'.
We officially had no British troops deployed in the city...
...but we still needed maps to navigate and coordinate in the city we weren't operating in...
...anyhoo. A little bit of history that sits in a drawer.
For those not familiar, if you zoom in you can see the different coloured spots with numbers, these are used as reference points to aid navigation, quicker than using a grid reference, although they still very much had their place.
I still have it some where as I'm not sure what to do with it :o)
Put it in the town bonfire next Guy Fawkes night?
More seriously call 101 and ask them. They should be able to send round someone to collect or tell you which police station to take them to.
I handed back 7 binbags of assorted crap from my time. Kept as little stuff as I could because I knew I was leaving not just the Army, but the country and there was no way I would be called back. What I kept was the things that were important and that I had bought myself, except the Sam Browne; I got that from my grandfather when he died, same with his swagger stick.
I occasionally regret not keeping the issue camelback, but I had civilian versions of all the important stuff and it was just taking up cupboard space.
it was just taking up cupboard space.
The other day I found a full CS95 issue, including a set of boots. Because this had been in a suitcase for many years the boot soles had crumbled into balls of black rubber...
Clearly no use to me or to anyone else (as it's old pattern) but don't know what to do with it.
Bonkers to think my era stuff will be sought after by collectors in a few more years.
There's a Telic era WMIK SWB landy at Duxford that a mate of mine drove around for a bit while in 16 Air Assault It came as 'some surprise' to him when he found it's now a museum display
Clearing the wife’s late uncle’s flat and found a load of stuff that he had pilfered in his time in the TA during the 1960s.
Gas mask with filter and anti-dimming compound, webbing, map case, puttees and so on. I’m aware that the filter could contain various nasties, so I won’t be messing with it or putting the mask on.
Have contacted a couple of specialist dealers as they would have an idea what to do with it.
Also found some playing cards depicting miserable looking women in a selection of naked poses.
What is the weirdest thing that you have inherited?
Was it this version?
This one. He was in the TA in I guess the mid to late 60s.
I've got a couple of those. Very handy when I had an industrial sander, rubbing down the floorboards!
Clearing the wife’s late uncle’s flat and found a load of stuff that he had pilfered in his time in the TA during the 1960s.
Gas mask with filter and anti-dimming compound, webbing, map case, puttees and so on. I’m aware that the filter could contain various nasties, so I won’t be messing with it or putting the mask on.
Have contacted a couple of specialist dealers as they would have an idea what to do with it.
Also found some playing cards depicting miserable looking women in a selection of naked poses.
What is the weirdest thing that you have inherited?
Was it this version?
This one. He was in the TA in I guess the mid to late 60s.
Crikey, that's WW2 vintage. MkII Light Anti-Gas Respirator.
Just googled it, issued on and around D-Day. Make sure they give you a good price Harry.
Was it this version?
Is than an S6?
Yes mate, given it was the 60's I thought it might be around that vintage.
Three figures... just.
To be honest we want shut of it. There's a risk of asbestos in the filter so I want it gone to someone who knows what it is rather than bang it on eBay and end up in a dressing up kit.
Not saying that it won't ultimately, but the guy who has made the offer has a high street shop and sells lots of similar items.
Three figures... just.
To be honest we want shut of it. There's a risk of asbestos in the filter so I want it gone to someone who knows what it is rather than bang it on eBay and end up in a dressing up kit.
Not saying that it won't ultimately, but the guy who has made the offer has a high street shop and sells lots of similar items.
Not bad at all. And yeah the right decision.
I've got a couple of those. Very handy when I had an industrial sander, rubbing down the floorboards!
Clearing the wife’s late uncle’s flat and found a load of stuff that he had pilfered in his time in the TA during the 1960s.
Gas mask with filter and anti-dimming compound, webbing, map case, puttees and so on. I’m aware that the filter could contain various nasties, so I won’t be messing with it or putting the mask on.
Have contacted a couple of specialist dealers as they would have an idea what to do with it.
Also found some playing cards depicting miserable looking women in a selection of naked poses.
What is the weirdest thing that you have inherited?
Was it this version?
Good for raiding embassies and DIY. 🤣
I've got a telescopic sight for a 6lb artillery piece courtesy of my Grandad.
It weighs a ton and must have been a nightmare in his luggage, but he brought it back.
I also have a Waltham Hunter pocket watch from him, but I never have an outfit I can wear it with.
If only you had a bunker to keep them in.
actually (and in no small part to your impatience as I’d sort of forgotten about) I’ve just commissioned and architect. Spent a couple days clearing overgrowth for a topographical survey the other week.
there’ll no doubt be a thread in months to come in which shovel barrel loads or cash into a hole in the ground 🙂