Re: Ex-POWs Family Forced to Auction Medals

Date: April 18, 2004

"Hero's family forced to auction VC

The family of a legendary Second World War airman who hoped to add their father's Victoria Cross to a museum collection devoted to his bravery have been forced to offer the medal at auction, following a legal dispute.

Lawyers advised the children of Norman Jackson to sell the honour after complications with their mother's will prevented it being given to the RAF Museum which hosts a display detailing his astounding daring in 1944.

The 25-year-old flight engineer plunged 20,000ft from the wing of a burning Lancaster bomber after clambering out of the cockpit in an attempt to extinguish the flames and save his fellow crew members.

With the stricken aircraft travelling at 200 miles an hour and still under attack from a German fighter, he tumbled to earth beneath a burning parachute and sustained horrific burns and injuries.

He later crawled to a village, close to the site of bombing raids on the town of Schweinfurt, and spent 10 months in hospital before being sent to a prisoner of war camp.

His Victoria Cross, presented by George VI in 1945, is now expected to fetch more than £140,000 when it is sold by London auction house Spink later this month.

Experts believe the compelling story of Sgt Jackson's courage could see the medal break the existing record price of £178,250 for a VC, which is shaped in the form of a Maltese Cross.

Mr Jackson, who later achieved the rank of Warrant Officer, died in 1994 and bequeathed his medals to wife Alma.

Following her death last August, the couple's four sons and three daughters learned that she did not specify to whom the Victoria Cross should pass in her will, meaning that legally the options were limited to either simply storing the medal or having it sold by Mrs Jackson's executors, with the proceeds going into her estate.

This halted the children's wish to offer the VC and their father's other honours to the RAF Museum, in Hendon, north London, which had planned to add the medals to an existing collection.

 
©Trinity Mirror Plc 2004"