Rodney Gerrard

ManfredT · 9 January 2010, 02:59 AM

"His family lived/lives in pretty abject poverty. His older brother, Ray, had gotten out as soon as he could and has had little to do with the family since. Ironically, he was the one who obtained the Wilcox/Lomax fabric collection for Rodney when he was manager of the Playboy Club in London. Rodney was to be his family's great hope to escape from their surrondings. He showed great promise in engineering/architecture and was a good student. Then he was struck with his diabetes while still in his teens that made him, at best, a semi-invalid for the rest of his life"

Long before Alan Toelle examinated the fabric in 1991, I have told to Alex Imrie and others that all the stuff of Rodney Gerrard was faked. Alan Toelle has done a fine job, but this job was not needed to call this primitive work what it was.

Nobody believed me at that time.

The reason was money, which was spended by the collectors, and shame. I got a friendly " Well, the Germans, being Germans". The fakes must be detected in the USA.

I could tell a lot more about Rodney Gerrard.

Manfred Thiemeyer

'14-'18aviationcollector · 9 January 2010, 04:47 AM

Hi Manfred,

I have what I imagine is probably one of his fake documents. It is about the death of MvR, and is just too good to be true, so I am of the opinion that it probably is too good to be true, and is probably one of his many fakes.

Regards,

David.

Gregvan · 9 January 2010, 07:16 AM

Hallo Manfred,

I'm sorry, I was unaware of your denouncing of the Rodney Gerrard material before 1991. I was only knowledgeable about my own suspicions, and Alan's work.

I shared my suspicions with my dear friend Dr. Marty O'Connor well before he died, but he defended Rodney stubbornly. I did not pursue it further with him, in the interest of our friendship. Most of Marty's work is based on much more credible and well-substantiated evidence, and I believe it is still valuable.

It's just too bad this stuff was accepted for as long as it was.

Greg

ManfredT · 9 January 2010, 07:36 AM

Hallo Greg,

sometimes our friend was believing also in the Rodney Gerrard collection, it was to fascinating. Wanted to buy it from the widow, but there were others with big money...

Manfred

Laserlloyd · 9 January 2010, 08:40 AM

I too liked Alan's work in C&C vol.26 no.3 (1995) along with Paul's article. I'm glad that these pieces are off the market. I think the damage could have been more if they were still out there.

Questions:

Are there any other RG material out there that may be influencing researcher today?

What published research did the RG collection have a influence on what today's researcher are reading?

Was there any consequences for RG for the material that he produced?

Lloyd...

jumpinjan · 9 January 2010, 08:50 AM

IMPS had a National show here in Dayton (about 1987) that I attended. I was looking for Fok Triplane color referrences and met a vendor that helped. He sold me a copy of Gerrard's paper, "The Fokker Triplane - History and Colour Notes".
I still have it.
Jan

Dan_San_Abbott · 9 January 2010, 12:31 PM

Gentlemen:
Marty O'Connors and I would have long telephone conversations, that is, up and until I suggested to Marty that the Rodney's camouflage reports were fakes. I went into gently as I could. Marty was furious with me for denigrating a very sick person in Rodney. He could not understand that I could be so cruel to even suggest they were fakes. I was never able to talk to Marty after his explosion, try as I may. I had lost a friend, a real good friend.
Sometime after that, I talked to Greg about the situation. My concern was the effect on Marty's book. Well this question about the color reference led the publisher to remove the color plates from Marty's extraordinary book on the Austrian Aces.
The problem was growing with Rodney's continued production of more and more fakes. I had conversations with Paul Leaman, who got caught in fakes on several occassions, about the situation.
Dr.Glenn Merrill purchase several volumes of the collected fakes, and was kind enough for Greg and I to review them. When I had scrutinized them I realized these fabric samples were fakes. It was unbelievable, doped fabric then cut into pieces does not have a fringe of yarns protruding from the fabric, further more doped yarns. Rodney apparently had never seen actual doped fabric samples, or else he would have made such a stupid mistake.
Further, some of the fabrics he used, had a very loose weave such as muslin. He cut the fabric to size and then doped them. As a result, the fabric shrunk, leaving the ends of the yarns protruding about 1/16" all around the sample.
The end of this non-ending story, came in San Diego as Greg related.
A lot of good people got stung by Rodney, For whatever his purpose, the truth is he committed a fraud, which in this country is a felony.
Happy New Year,
Dan-San

ManfredT · 9 January 2010, 01:55 PM

"...To my knowledge, Marty and I are the only ones to have seen the Gerrard collection in its entirety (or as near entirety as possible, there is so much of it that I'm not sure Rodney can find it all at given time!), and neither of us has the slightest doubt about its authenticity. Yet the insinuations continue that could jeopardize the availability of a fabric collection that is probably the world's single most valuable resource for research into the colours of WWI aircraft." Glen K Merrill, Ph.D. Americal/Gryphon
(Windsock, Vol 4, No 2, 1988)

"... Rodney never hesitated to risk sending in valuable fabric snippets to me in the post so that I could match them for the colour chips used in over 17 instalments of Fabric; without his help this unique feature could not have continued..." Ed.
(Ray L Rimell, Editor, Windsock, Vol 5, No 1, 1989)

Let me say it again: the fakes are so primitive, the text and the material, that since 1986 it was absolutely clear what is was. All I got was a friendly " Well, the Germans, being Germans".

Manfred Thiemeyer

alex_revell · 10 January 2010, 03:50 AM

To my certain knowledge, Alex Imrie always dismissed these as fakes, long before any controversy arose or any questions about them were asked.
For anyone who might be interested, Alex is in hospital at the moment and not very well at all.

Laserlloyd · 10 January 2010, 05:11 AM

Alex,

Please pass along are heart felt wishes for him and a speedy recovery.

Lloyd...