Medals from the Collection formed by Peter Wardrop

Peter Wardrop

Peter John Wardrop was born 'a true Cockney' in the City of London on 6 September 1934. Educated at Upton House for Boys, he left school at the age of 15 without any qualifications, becoming a floral decorator. At the same time the medal collecting bug bit, Peter purchasing as many medals as his salary of £2 lOs. a week would allow. With National Service looming, he joined the Royal Army Service Corps on 20 November 1952, six weeks after his 18th birthday, and served his time in Perth, Scotland.

On leaving the R.A.S.C. Peter worked in the City for the next 40 years, finishing as a Group Head Messenger in a merchant bank, while continuing to collect medals, specialising in the K.R.R.C. and the Anglo-Boer War. Saturday mornings would find him at Baldwin's, where he learnt the intricacies of medal collecting from Donald Hall and Ronald Barden. Then marriage and fatherhood forced him to put his medals away for 15 years. Coming back to the hobby in the 1970s was, as Peter says, "a great culture shock because prices had risen with inflation." But he persevered, and the collection described in the following pages is a testament to what he has achieved.