The collection of Medals formed by the Late Clive Nowell

Clive John Nowell

Clive Nowell was born in Harrow, Middlesex on 14 April 1940, the only child of older parents with strong traditional Victorian values and a deep religious faith. He lived in Harrow all his life, was educated there, never married and lived with his parents until their death. He shared their values; indeed, the austerity of his early years in wartime and the frugal style of living his parents pursued made such an impact on him that they formed the basis for his entire life.

A quiet, modest, very private man, Clive had a great sense of humour and enjoyed his own interests and pursuits. As a highly intelligent only child whose early passion was reading, especially history, he was encouraged and informed by his parents when he developed an interest in military history, in particular. He was influenced by the great boyhood stories of Henty but had many other interests, including numismatics and philately, theology, the arts, music and Egyptology. A server in various Harrow churches for many years, Clive took his religious duties very seriously and made many congregational friends.

Clive started his medal collection at an early age, with typical modest acquisitions as finance and opportunity allowed, but as time progressed he redefined his focus, concentrating on specific campaigns and periods of military history. He upgraded his collection over the years, buying wisely and well, spending a great deal of time researching the provenance of individual medal acquisitions, a pursuit which gave him great pleasure and satisfaction.

It was Clive's expressed wish, endorsed in his Will, that on his death, which occurred on 29 March 2009, his collection of orders, medals, awards, militaria, military books and historic manuscripts should be sold at auction and that the net proceeds should be divided in their entirety between ten named military charities, 'so that service people and ex-service people of the present may benefit indirectly from the achievements of their predecessors.' With this thought in mind, it is hoped that this auction will be a great success.