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Fighter ace sells medals to spare wife long wait for hip replacement (British NHS)
The Telegraph ^ | 12-06-05 | Neil Tweedie

Posted on 12/08/2005 3:29:23 PM PST by atomic conspiracy

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.

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."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: aviation; disgrace; hawkerhunter; hero; ingrates; socializedmedicine
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To: patton
Neville Duke at the controls of WB188, September 1951 (two months after first flight and with a different paint scheme)
21 posted on 12/08/2005 4:14:51 PM PST by atomic conspiracy (Islamo-terrorists: Strike force of the MSM)
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To: atomic conspiracy
I question whether she could survive a hip replacement at 85...
22 posted on 12/08/2005 4:17:33 PM PST by Eric in the Ozarks
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To: atomic conspiracy
Fighter ace sells medals to spare wife long wait for hip replacement

Once more a hero.

23 posted on 12/08/2005 4:25:51 PM PST by AZLiberty (She couldn't control Biil's zipper. She wants to control the nation.)
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To: atomic conspiracy

http://www.ramhospital.com/


24 posted on 12/08/2005 4:26:24 PM PST by wolficatZ (Jonathan Quayle Higgins III - "Zeus...Apollo...Patrol!"....)
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To: Eric in the Ozarks
I question whether she could survive a hip replacement at 85...

Of course she could survive it, my mother-in-law had one when she was even older and shortly afterward was tootling around with no problem.

25 posted on 12/08/2005 5:12:42 PM PST by Capriole (I don't have any problems that can't be solved by more chocolate or more ammunition.)
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To: Grenada; Diva Betsy Ross
The problem is that the local criminal element now knows what the collection is worth, and they would "collect it", but pronto.

In Britain these days, what's theirs is theirs, and what's yours is theirs - all without any interference from "the authorities".

Of course, if you laid a hand on them "in the commission", "the authorities" would make damn sure YOU ended up in the pokey...

26 posted on 12/08/2005 9:18:24 PM PST by an amused spectator (If Social Security isn't broken, then cut me a check for the cash I have into it.)
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To: Grenada
I really hope someone will buy his medals from the "private collector" and return them. If I were the buyer I would return them anonymously. A national hero is forced to sell his medals because the state-run health care system fails his wife.

Given the security issue -- theives operating with impunity -- I think he is far better off to have the money in the bank and the medals in the hands of a private collector who will clearly take very good care of them. Some day they should go on display in a national museum or a military facility. Possibly the private collector would loan them to such a facility.

It is a sad comentary that a war hero has to live in a crime-ridden location in his final years.

27 posted on 12/08/2005 9:37:05 PM PST by CurlyDave
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To: atomic conspiracy

Neville Duke! There's a name to conjure with. The pin-up boy's hero of my generation. For a time he was the most famous man in England, occupying the sort of niche now held by the likes of Beckham. And I actually saw him in the famous red Hunter at the Farnborough air show of 1953, when he famously executed victory rolls directly over the heads of the crowd, in contemptuous defiance of the organisers who had banned the manoeuvre after an accident. Alas, my own attempts to build a balsa-wood Hunter (one of the most beautiful aircraft of all time, incidentally) were pretty pathetic.


28 posted on 12/09/2005 1:13:06 AM PST by Winniesboy
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To: atomic conspiracy
God Bless this Man. Once a Hero, always a Hero. Selling the lot to get his wife an operation.

As for socialized medicine, a different and darker sentiment applies.

29 posted on 12/09/2005 1:22:01 AM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly.)
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To: si tacuissem

Yes I agree with that entirely.

Respect to Mr Duke and heartfelt thanks for his service. That he should have to do this in the twilight of his life disgusts me and is an insult to the memory of all those who fought the Nazi menace. This is a great shame for Britain.


30 posted on 12/09/2005 1:29:51 AM PST by fragrant abuse
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To: patton

Stop calling me Shirley.


31 posted on 12/09/2005 5:59:38 AM PST by Dashing Dasher ((It was) Like being shot through a pinball machine with a piano on your chest!")
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