WW2 Group of Campaign Medals Attributed to Flight Lieutenant Anthony Vivian Smith (Tony) De Reuck, Royal Air Force (1923-2016)

In original box of issue with ribbons:

1939-45 Star
France & Germany Star
Defence Medal
War Medal

Air Council Medal Slip reflecting the award of the above and box from the Air Ministry and addressed to:

F/L A.V.S. De Reuck, 111, Onslow Gardens, Wallington, Surrey.

London Gazette 23 January 1953 page 513 (copy provided) confirms Flying Officer Anthony Vivian Smith de Reuck (185043) as Flying Officer, Meteorological Branch, 1st November 1944.

Post war, Tony de Reuck became a significant figure in conflict studies and analysis, has been the co-author of many works on pharmaceutical texts and also published books on medieval armour including the Art of the Armourer and also the Royal Armoury at Greenwich. Some of his collection of books, weapons and armour were auctioned off in 2017-18 by Thomas Del Mar (Now Olympia Auctions). There is a fascinating almost two hour long interview to be found of him on YouTube and also a 42 page pdf transcript of this interview. I include some interesting extracts below:

"I am the son of a Belgian who came over to this country and married an English girl, my mother, during the First World War, and half the family are, therefore, on the continent. And throughout my childhood, I had been very conscious both of the War of 1870, the German invasion of France, and of the War of 1914 which killed all my father’s male cousins and sent my grandfather to prison for failing to declare that he had brass candlesticks that could be recycled into shell cases by the Germans who were occupying Ghent at the time. And his hair turned white and his teeth fell out while he was in prison. And these things meant that war, for me, was a family matter to a degree that it was not for most Britons. Almost everybody I knew had lost a relative in the First World War, but they had lost them in distant parts somehow or other. And when I first went to Belgium, they were still restoring the ruins of the Cloth Hall in Ypres – or “Wipers”. And one way or another, it was a more intimate event - more than it would be for the average British schoolboy.

In 1933, we spent a lot of time with the family, back in Belgium, and my grandfather’s house looked out onto the River Schelde … and I remember in 1933 the first time a German ship came down past the house flying the swastika of the Third Reich and how all the people poured out of their houses to look at it, and how some of the women threw their aprons over their faces, and one or two of the older ones wept. There was an expectation of war and a horror at what was going on in Europe, which extended from 1933 onwards and led to a total conviction that war was on the schedule.

I joined the RAF during the war as a meteorologist. I didn’t stay doing just meteorology but became liaison officer of the French Air Force because I was supposed to be able to speak French...– but it turned out to be a perfectly reasonable job except that it involved the liaising with French officers who were in charge of the innumerable German prisoners which were taken in Northern France after D-Day where we were situated… in Britain. Not in Normandy, but in Britain. Anyway, yes, I messed about as an RAF bloke in the war, and finally got sent out to India, and saw the division of India - the Indian continent - into two states and the dreadful Civil War that broke out there. ... And I left on the day of partition as a part of a symbolic evacuation - with bands playing on the key in Bombay as we all left to go thankfully back to the United Kingdom - as a symbol of the relinquishment of power. What the hell am I supposed to be talking about ? Oh yes, what happened at – when I got home. I graduated at Imperial College. And it so happened that the physics department where I worked was really dedicated to nuclear energy – or, rather, nuclear physics. Nuclear energy had just come on the agenda. And afterwards, I went into the Department of Chemical Engineering which might have equipped us – Marjorie, my wife, too, because we were both undergraduates at the same course and went into postgraduate work at the same time – might have equipped us for the nuclear power industry or, indeed, for the nuclear weapons industry. But without making any conscious fuss about it, none of us felt that this was appropriate. And I went to work first as the editor of 'Nature', and then later as the deputy director of the CIBA Foundation for pharmaceutical research... I was engaged in teaching international relations at the University of Surrey for 18 years he was their Head of International Relations Department and set up a scholarship for Surrey Alumni, and during that time, my constant endeavour was to find ways of incorporating international relations into the social sciences."

His funeral notice (copy provided) confirms Tony died on the 18th November 2016 after a short illness, aged 93. And that he was the much loved husband of Marjorie and nephews and nieces in both the UK and Belgium.

You can access this transcript and video at the following URL:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsiBJiJcvtM

https://activity.scar.gmu.edu/sites/default/files/global-documents/PoF/DeReuck_Parents_Transcript.pdf

His obituary can be seen here (copy provided):

http://conflictresearchsociety.org/__trashed/

An interesting life, the medals give little hint of the richness of his life lived. Modern groups have an appeal which I think the market has as yet to fully appreciate. An hour or two of surfing the web in search of his digital fingerprints can reveal so much!

Please note the Royal Armoury Greenwich book is not included with this lot.

F93

Code: 61546