Special Collections
Philip Burman
My father, Philip passed away in December 2016. A collector of all sorts of things throughout his life, he at one time or another collected stamps, cigarette cards and birds’ eggs, to name but a few of his collecting interests. However, it was, I believe his time spent in the Royal Air Force on National Service that sparked his passion for military medals, which was to become a lifelong interest and later a successful business that would last for the rest of his life.
My father completed his National Service in a particularly active period in terms of post-war hostilities for the Royal Air Force, serving in the Far East as an Air Gunner on the Short Sunderland Flying Boat, during the Malayan Emergency and latterly the Korean War. It is therefore not surprising that his personal collecting interest focused in the main around the campaigns in which he himself took an active part. His collection was exhibited at the OMRS Convention many years ago and is, I understand, widely acknowledged as one of best collections of its type.
In the late 1960’s early 1970’s my father began to turn his passion for collecting into a business. In creating his stock, he threw the net wide and it was at this time that he began importing medals from around the world, particularly India and Pakistan where he built up a network of loyal contacts who supplied him with fresh material that had never before been seen on the collectors’ market.
Over a period of nearly fifty years my father built up from scratch a successful global business founded upon his passion for medals, his integrity and his vast knowledge of the subject. I know through personal anecdotes and the many letters of condolence that my family received from medal collectors and dealers alike what high esteem he was held in. It is my hope that his collection of medals for the Malaya and Korea Campaigns offered in this catalogue will serve as a lasting memorial to him and his passion for the subject.
CWB April 2018
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