Lt. L.M. Barlow, 56/Sqn. e-bay report

30 January 2003, 03:15 AM

Well, did anyone on here see the ebay sale of Lt.

Leonard Barlow's combat report for April 24, 1917? It went for $330!! I couldn't afford to go that high.

In case any of you are now the proud owners, I would love to have copy of text. The ebay site did not have a transcript.

Thanks,
Scarlett

Frank_Olynyk · 30 January 2003, 05:44 AM

Can you provide the link to the sale on eBay? I could not find it by searching for "combat report". But I did find a second combat report, of SB Horn from June 1918, signed by

Billy Bishop, being offered for a starting price of $1300. Its link is at

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...&category=13966

Frank.

Soderbaum · 30 January 2003, 06:01 AM

It must be a stop of these selling of original archive material...

>

Gunnar

30 January 2003, 06:45 AM

I agree about it being a crime to sell these historic documents. It should be in 56 squadron archives or the RAF museum. My question is how did it get to Canada? That's where the seller is.

The sale ended last night, so I don't think you can still get to the page.

I honestly would have given it over to one of the above archives had I purchased it, but I simply could not afford to pay that much just now.

I'll try to alert ya'll next time I see something, surprised no one knew.

Cheers,
Scarlett

MikeW · 30 January 2003, 10:05 AM

IT IS A CRIME

If these are original, they are stolen property, and any such items seen coming up for sale should be reported to the Public Records Office at Kew.

I can provide the appropriate e-mail address to anyone that's interested.

Mike

Michael · 30 January 2003, 10:15 AM

If they are the original. I suspect that Combat in the Air reports were made out in at least triplicate. I wouldn't be surprised if a copy was given to the pilot.

MikeW · 30 January 2003, 10:23 AM

Michael,

have you ever seen one of the copies? The copies were made with carbon paper and believe me, they are not very legible. I have never heard of pilots being given copies - in general, when they "made up" their flying log books, most of them copied the squadron daily ops book.

56 squadron combat reports were stolen in bulk by a certain Mr. Graves who eventually got caught, was tried, found guilty, and was given a token punishment of community service.

A large number of WW1 and WW2 documents were never recovered, and still keep surfacing to this day.

56 squadron being "fashionable" would have attracted Mr. Graves like a fly to you know what!

Mike

AOK4 · 30 January 2003, 10:29 AM

Here in Belgium, no archives can ever become private property, so if one or other paper from the archives are being sold, the authorities should be informed and the man trying to sell the paper will be punished and the paper will be taken back by the Belgian State Archive.
Isn't there some kind of similar legislation in England? Then the authorities should be informed, just like with stolen art...

Jan

MikeW · 30 January 2003, 10:39 AM

Jan,

I am not entirely certain of the legal position in England, but I believe that the stolen archive is still the property of the Government (or Nation) no matter how many times the archive changes hands privately. If someone buys an archive document on eBay for $1000 or whatever, and the Public Records Office can track him down, he will be legally bound to forfeit the said item.

Of course, as most of these documents surface in the USA, Canada, and Australia, it's a bit more problematical trying to recover them.

Mike

30 January 2003, 10:59 AM

I do still have the info on the seller, and it is still probably early enough (auction was last night) that he still has it in his possession. Also the winning bidder is listed. I believe Ebay has a policy of returning items if it is verified they are stolen.

Any advice about what to do?

Scarlett