The Collection of Medals Formed by The Late A. A. Mount

Anthony Arthur Mount

Tony Mount was born in Benfleet, Essex, on 24 February 1931. Following the death of his father, Sydney, in 1938, at the tragically early age of 34, Tony, his brother and their widowed mother were taken care of by his great-uncle Albert Gillott, who Tony described as "the nicest man God made." Gillott had served with the 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards from 1884 to 1890 before transferring into the reserves and serving with the Metropolitan Police for 2 7 years -his medals remain with the Mount family.

Tony left school just prior to his 14th birthday in 1944 and commenced work in the building trade. His first jobs included working on what were termed 'first aid repairs' to local buildings damaged by Vl and V2 rockets. He advanced to bricklaying and learnt the skills that, despite adversity and post-War shortages, led to him and his new wife Jean building their first home together, on land next door to the house he was born in. The task was completed in 1954 and he wrote at the time "there are 27,000 bricks in this house and I have laid every one of them b myself." The Mounts lived there until 1990, three years after Tony took early retirement from the Vacuum Oil Company, later Mobil Oil.

His interest in medal collecting was sparked at an early age when great-uncle Albert made him a gift of his own medals. Tony's real interest, though, was in the people who were awarded the medals in his collection. Well known as a meticulous and tenacious researcher of detail, he enjoyed an extensive correspondence with individuals and organisations all over the world. His speciality, unsurprisingly, was the Essex Regiment, and many of his medals to Essex men were acquired from a variety of sources earlier, rather than later, in his collecting career.

Tony died in May 2001, leaving a son, John, a daughter, Sally, and a grand-daughter, Emily Jean.