The Collection of Napoleonic War Medals formed by the late R.W. Gould, M.B.E.

Robert W Gould, MBE

Following service in the Royal West African Frontier Force from 1946 to 1948, Bob Gould joined the Metropolitan Police. He was the first chief instructor of the Met’s Firearms Wing, and maintained that during his career he attended more courses than any other policeman. These included a sniper instructor’s course at the School of Infantry, a month in the Federal Bureau of Investigations Academy in the USA and a body-guarding course with 22 SAS. He retired in 1981.

A natural born collector since the mid-1960s, Bob assembled and dispersed collections of bayonets, model soldiers, military postal history, firearms and, in medals, awards to the Royal Navy, the King’s German Legion and both World War I and World War II gallantry.

Bob was the author of a number of books and articles, including Campaign Medals of the British Army 1815-1972 (published 1972), The Army of India Medal Roll 1799-1826 (1974), Locations of British Cavalry, Infantry and Machine Gun Units 1914-1924 (1977), London’s Armed Police (1986), Mercenaries of the Napoleonic Wars (1995) and Epic Actions of the First World War (1997).

A long-time member of the Orders and Medals Research Society, he listed his interests as military and police history, British medals and dog-walking.