Record €63,000 for GC

Kyt · Mar 31, 2008

timesofmalta.com - War hero's George Cross fetches record €63,000

A George Cross group of eight awarded to an army officer who served in Malta during the Second World War broke records when it was sold at an auction last week, fetching £49,450 (€63,124).

The auction of the cross of eight awarded to Brigadier William Eastman on Christmas Eve in 1940 set a new world record for any George Cross auction when it went under the hammer at Dix, Noonan and Webb (DNW) Auctioneers.

The medal had been awarded for 'most conspicuous gallantry in carrying out very hazardous work' during World War II. Brig. Eastman and a fellow officer, Captain Jephson Jones (who also received the medal), rendered safe some 275 unexploded bombs in Malta in 1940 when it was under attack from the Italians.

The cross is in good hands, as it has been bought by the Regimental Museum in Surrey, which is owned by the Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment Association.

Christopher Hill, client services director at DNW, explained how the cross had been jointly left to Mr Eastman's two daughters.

The daughters, who did not wish to be named when contacted yesterday by The Sunday Times, explained that the reason for putting this family heirloom up for auction was that this was a single item and it would be unfair to the one who did not get the cross.

Their mother, who still lives in Malta, wanted them to have that part of their inheritance in her lifetime and they did what they thought to be fair and best.

Brig. Eastman came from a family who worked in the dyeing and dry-cleaning business. He had little relevant training but it was as a result of his knowledge of chemicals drawn from that business that he was recommended for a commission in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps on volunteering shortly before the outbreak of hostilities.

Having then attended the Inspecting Ordnance Officer's course at Bramley, he embarked for Malta in 1940 during the war.

During this period of the war in Malta, no expert Royal Engineer Bomb Disposal units had been formed and the job of attending to unexploded bombs and mines had to be handled by the Royal Army Ordnance Corps.

Brig. Eastman and Capt. Jones had no great special equipment, no trained staff and very little knowledge of the mechanism of German and Italian missiles. They just had to learn as they went along.

"Their courage was beyond all praise and it was a miracle that they both remained alive," the London Gazzette of December 24, 1940, had reported.

Brig. Eastman met his future Maltese wife while in Malta and settled on the island in 1966 when he retired that year. He died in Sliema in April 1980, while Capt. Jones died five years later.

The George Cross is the highest civil decoration of the Commonwealth of Nations. It is the civilian counterpart of the Victoria Cross and the highest gallantry award for civilians as well as for military personnel in actions, which are not in the face of the enemy or for which purely military honours would not normally be granted.

The George Cross was awarded to Malta by King George VI in 1942 to 'bear witness to the heroism and devotion of its people' during the great siege it underwent in the early parts of the war.
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Kyt · Mar 31, 2008

Lot Information

‘For most conspicuous gallantry in carrying out very hazardous work.’

The original recommendation - written in conjunction with that for fellow R.A.O.C. officer, Captain R. L. J. Jones - states:

‘On various dates Lieutenant Eastman, with Captain R. L. J. Jones, R.A.O.C., worked under dangerous and trying conditions and performed acts of considerable gallantry in dealing with large numbers of various unexploded bombs, some of which were in a highly dangerous state and of the German delay type.

On one occasion, these officers showed particular gallantry in dealing with an 1100lb. German bomb. Two attempts were made to explode this bomb but it failed to detonate; at the third attempt when it was in a most dangerous state, they succeeded in detonating it.

On a second occasion, these officers, assisted by a Master Rigger of H.M. Dockyard, succeeded in removing a 400lb. high explosive Italian unexploded bomb which had been under water for a week in a 20ft. deep well inside a house. This bomb, fused at both ends, was in a dangerous state. It had to be raised to the ground floor by means of a gin, tackle, sling and ropes. This operation was doubly dangerous, as: (a) There was a possibility of the sling slipping while the bomb was being hauled up and (b) The bomb was two and half ft. long, the mouth of the well three ft. one inch wide, and for safety the bomb had to be kept horizontal, if possible, and pulled up thus. Lieutenant Eastman assisted the Master Rigger, guided the bomb from the floor of the well, and Captain Jones went to the top to guide it through the opening. They succeeded in getting the bomb out although there was only a six inch clearance as it came through the mouth of the well.’

William Marsden “Bill” Eastman was born in Brentford in October 1911 and was educated at Uppingham and Cambridge University, but had to leave the latter seat of learning on his father’s death, in order to take over the family dyeing and dry-cleaning business. And it was as a result of his knowledge of chemicals drawn from that business that he was recommended for a commission in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps on volunteering shortly before the outbreak of hostilities. Having then attended the Inspecting Ordnance Officer’s course at Bramley, he was embarked for Malta in March 1940. Subsequent events are best summarised by Brigadier Sir John Smyth, V.C., in The Story of the George Cross:

‘At this period of the war in Malta, no expert Royal Engineer Bomb Disposal units had been formed and the job of attending to unexploded bombs and mines dropped on the Island had to be handled by the R.A.O.C. - in fact Jephson Jones and Eastman. They had no great special equipment, no trained staff and very little knowledge of the mechanism of German and Italian missiles. They just had to learn as they went along.

They were told that they would have to deal with all unexploded bombs and mines which fell on the Island except those which dropped in the dockyard area and on airfields, which were dealt with by the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. No one imagined - or at any rate no one in Malta had imagined - that Malta would become such a target for the venom, first of the Italian Air Force and then of the Germans. But between 10 June and mid-November 1940, when their job was taken over by a properly constituted and trained R.E. Bomb Disposal unit, Jephson Jones and Eastman dealt with some 275 unexploded bombs. Their courage was beyond all praise and it was a miracle that they both remained alive.

They were awarded the George Cross on Christmas Eve 1940 and were given a choice of receiving the decoration immediately from the Governor or waiting until they were posted back to the Middle East or the United Kingdom. They both chose the latter and were invested together by the King at Buckingham Palace in December 1944.’

A number of anecdotes survive from Eastman’s hair-raising sojourn in Malta, one of them recounting the occasion he worked in his shirt-sleeves on a hot day as a UXB was dug out, but then donned his tunic and Sam Browne before returning to diffuse it - when asked why by an onlooker, he replied, “If I have to die, I might as well die decent”; while another describes the occasion he journeyed to a UXB site on a motorbike, with his girlfriend, Yvonne Vassallo, along for the ride - she unhesitatingly accepted his invitation to sit on the UXB and steady it as he went about his perilous work!

Eastman was posted to G.H.Q., Cairo as Chief Ordnance Officer in 1942, but not before carrying out further gallant deeds, a case in point being his “clearance” - over three days - of the valuable cargo of ammunition, kerosene and aviation fuel aboard the merchantman Talabot, which ship was eventually sunk at her moorings in Marsaxlokk harbour; so, too, on a later occasion, his clearance of a cargo of ‘infamous Dutch Anti-tank Mines’ from the holds of no less than seven ships, all the while conscious of the fact a mere 18-inch drop would set-off their hyper-sensitive detonators.

Remaining in the Regular Army after the War, he was latterly a popular Commandant of the R.A.O.C. Training Centre at Blackdown, and finally retired as Brigadier in 1966. Settling in Malta in the same year, he died at Sliema in April 1980 and is buried in Ta’ Braxia Cemetery; see One Step Further, Those Whose Gallantry Was Rewarded With The George Cross, by Marion Hebblethwaite, for further details.

Sold with a quantity of original documentation, including four “Investiture Day” photographs and a later portrait, in uniform, as a Brigadier, wearing his Honour & Awards; his Buckingham Palace investiture letter and admittance ticket, dated 12 December 1944; his membership certificate for the Royal Society of St. George, dated 14 May 1942; his M.O.D. retirement letter, dated 19 October 1966; some post-war V.C. & G.C. Association tickets, invitations and programmes, etc., and several newspaper cuttings.
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Record €63,000 for GC

Kyt Άρης

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