Antiques Trade Gazette 51
With the SAS as they stormed the Iranian Embassy
THE Queen’s Gallantry medal awarded to SAS Sergeant Tommy G.C.Palmer for his part in storming the Iranian Embassy on May 5, 1980 was the top lot at £79,000 plus premium in the Bonhams For Valour sale in Knightsbridge on September 29. It was one of only three Queen’s Gallantry Medals awarded to SAS troopers involved in the storming of the embassy. The award was sold as a group with Sgt Palmer’s other medals from Northern Ireland, Dhofar and the Falklands. Along with the medals was the hood worn during the siege, a map of the Iranian Embassy and associated ephemera. Tommy Palmer’s story is a classic case of military success in the face of social adversity.
A Falkirk boy born in 1950, he was
brought up in Edinburgh until being taken into care aged eight. At 16 he moved in with a cousin and took a job as a coalman before joining the Royal Engineers in 1970. He applied to join the SAS at the young age of 22.
During the Iranian Embassy siege of 1980, Palmer was to play a key role. The siege had entered its sixth day, and the terrorists had killed at least one hostage, when Home Secretary Willie Whitelaw gave the go-ahead for the SAS to go in. Palmer’s team were to abseil off the
roof down to the balcony on the second floor where the latest intelligence reports believed both the hostages and terrorists
were positioned.
Palmer and his team leader were the first down, battling with snagged ropes, broken windows and the flames caused by two stun grenades to greet the female hostages.
Finding access to the landing and stairwell was blocked, Palmer then returned through the inferno and entered another room via a balcony where he encountered a terrorist trying to set light to the carpet. Palmer took aim and fired, but his sub machine gun performed the dreaded “Dead Man’s Click” where the mechanism clicked but no round fired. The terrorist fired back but missed
before Palmer dropped his gun and drew his Browning pistol. As the terrorist entered the Telex room where all the male hostages were being kept he took out a hand grenade and moved to remove the pin. Palmer shot him dead with a single round.
Although that was not the end of the operation, no more hostages were killed. Palmer went onto to see action in the Falklands War the following year but, tragically, he and another SAS soldier were killed near Lurgan in Northern Ireland, during a covert operation on February 8, 1983.
Other highlights in Bonhams’ sale included ten medals belonging to WW2 Group Captain A.H Donaldson. The group, which included the Distinguished Service Order and
Nov 16@ Nov 18@ Nov 21 Nov 24 Nov 30 Dec 1@
British & International Campaign Medal Auctions Wallis & Wallis, Lewes (0)1273 480208
www.wallisandwallis.co.uk
Sales marked @ are viewable on
antiquestradegazette.com. Auctioneers are asked to send details of specialist campaign and gallantry medal sales, as well as those sales that may contain significant campaign and gallantry medal sections, to Ivan Macquisten at:
medals@atgmedia.com
OPENING SOON
George Kidner, Lymington (0)1590 670070
www.georgekidner.co.uk Lockdales, Ipswich (0)1473 218588
www.www.lockdales.com Bonhams, London (0)1926 499031
www.bonhams.com
Morton & Eden, London W1 (0)20 7493 5344
www.mortonandeden.com Dix Noonan Webb, London (0)20 7016 1700
www.dnw.co.uk
Distinguished Flying Cross, was estimated at £15,000-20,000.
Donaldson was almost shot down twice, losing his fingers in the process, and miraculously survived a plane crash into the sea off Gibraltar as he was being flown out of Malta on a stretcher. The medals fetched £23,500.
Above: this Queen’s Gallantry medal group, one of only three awarded following the SAS storming of the Iranian Embassy in London in 1981, took £79,000 to top Bonhams’ For Valour sale on September 29.
London’s biggest stockist of British campaign and gallantry medals No.7 Whitcomb Street, London WC2H 7HA
Tel/Fax: 020 7352 0308 Tel: 020 7930 8836
richard@chelseamilitaria.com
No.7 Whitcomb Street London WC2H 7HA
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