17th Dec, 2020 10:00
Military & Aviation History, Medals & Militaria, Sir Barnes Wallis & Sir Winston Churchill
Wallis (Barnes Neville). An important Autograph Letter Signed, 'B.N. Wallis', 2 August 1948
Sold for £3,600
Wallis (Barnes Neville, 1887-1979). An important Autograph Letter Signed, 'B.N. Wallis', White Hill House, Effingham, Surrey, 2 August 1948, to his Executors, giving a detailed account of his family and financial situation amid concerns for the financial welfare of his wife and children in the eventuality of his death, and hoping that they will act in his best interests with all the information he provides, Wallis begins with the death of his brother and sister-in-law, Barbara and Hurley McCormick, in November 1940, and Barnes and Molly's subsequent adoption of their two children John and Robert, 'This comparatively large addition to my dependants, combined with heavy taxation, and the refusal of the Walker family to agree to legal adoption of the children (with consequent tax relief &c), has ever since that time made my income insufficient to meet my expenditure, thus preventing my saving money to provide for the long period of widowhood that in the course of nature my wife will have to face', continuing that he had told these things to Sir Hew Kilner, managing director of the Aviation Section of Vickers-Armstrongs Ltd. at Christmas 1944 and then going into details about various potential payments and tax implications, then giving an account of his various appointments and summary of his work and also referring to the 'bouncing bomb' invention, 'My Executors should know that, although urged to do so by my Patent Agents, I have refused to make any application to the Board of Inventions for any Awards that might be reasonably due to me for the inventions by which the Möhne and Eder Dams were destroyed in May 1943, or for the "Tallboy" and "Grand Slam" bomb. All these things were done entirely on my own initiative, in the face of strong opposition from Sir Charles Craven (footnoted as Chairman of Vickers-Armstrongs) though in the end with his help and approval... ', 5 pages with embossed address at head of first page, attaching two schedules, both in the hand of Barnes Wallis, the first a 'List of Appointments and Directors', summarising his career in eight periods from 1913 to the present time, written in tabular form on rectos of 2 leaves, the second schedule, being a 'List of Works' giving a more detailed description of the various projects undertaken during his working career and numbered to refer back to his list of appointments, 8 pages, all written on rectos only of a total of 15 foolscap folio sheets, first page of letter lightly toned, paperclip rust impression to blank upper left corner of first and last page, not affecting any text
(Quantity: 1)
Provenance: From the family of Barnes Wallis, by direct descent.
A highly important autograph summary of Wallis's working life. In the description of work schedule he gives detailed notes about the various projects and his roles in them, beginning with his involvement with H.B. Pratt on the R9. 'The R9 was stopped by Churchill then First Lord of the Admiralty, in the belief that the war would be over before the ship could be put into service. Pratt and I enlisted in the Artists' Rifles. It was soon realised that the war would be a long one, and Pratt and I, were firstly transferred to the R.N.V.R. to complete R9 as Naval Officers, and then transferred to Vickers, to carry out the programme of Naval Airship Development'.
Wallis also refers to the R100 & R101 airships: 'During 1930 R100 flew successfully to Canada and back. The R101 attempting to emulate our performance by flying to India via Ismailia crashed after a few hours flight at Amiens with the loss of 48 lives. During the closing months of my time at Hawarden, when my design work was finished I had become interested in the design of aeroplanes, and saw that, with the great experience of the design of very light structures that I now possessed such improvements in the performance of aeroplanes could be made as would render the sole raison d'etre of airships, mainly their ability to fly great distances non-stop, no longer their sole prerogative. To this end I invented "Geodetic Construction" and the Wellesley monoplane... during this period also, in conjunction with R.K. Pierson I designed the Wellington Bomber which did frontline service throughout the war'.
Wallis later refers to Operation Chastise and his experiments with bombs: 'Our experiments showed the impossibility of destroying these [Möhne & Eder Dams] or any other massive dams, even by the use of the largest bomb that I had suggested - ten tons, and in my extremity I invented the (still "top-secret") special weapon by which success was achieved in the historic attack which won for Wing Commander Guy Gibson the VC on the night of May 16-17, 1943. The attack did immense damage in the Eder & Ruhr Valleys. Industry in the Ruhr district was temporarily brought largely to a standstill due to the failure of fouling of the water supplies, and some 3,000 people were killed or drowned in the Ruhr Valley alone. The attack was one of amazing gallantry and skill on the part of Gibson and his Special Squadron (No. 617). The success showed to perfection the virtues of the scientific approach in modern warfare. Owing to the extreme secrecy, and novelty of the weapon and the harmful use that could be made of it against this country, it has not yet received the publicity nor the reward that it deserved, but it tended to establish in the minds of the C. in C's such as Sir Arthur Harris, and the C.E. Sir Wilfrid Freeman an impression of the rightness of the lines on which I had argued when writing my "Note on means of Attacking".'
Wallis also gives an account of his involvement with the "Tallboy" and "Grand Slam" bombs and their successful use including the sinking of the "Tirpitz" by 617 Squadron, 'to the great indignation of the Director of Naval Construction and the Admiralty who still seem to think it not quite the thing that a battleship (albeit a German one) should be sunk by a bomb, when the whole efforts of the British Navy had conspicuously failed to do it by other means'. The account continues to his posting as head of a Research and Development department at Vickers-Armstrongs which was formed in 1945.
The account ends in mid-sentence but is apparently pretty much complete: 'My knowledge of the German weapon V2 led to an interesting development in work that had long formed the purpose of my thought and aim in aeronautics, that is to say the development of a type of aircraft that could achieve long range, high speed and great load carrying capacity simultaneously. In a note [ends here].'
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Auction: Military & Aviation History, Medals & Militaria, Sir Barnes Wallis & Sir Winston Churchill, 17th Dec, 2020
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The amount is calculated as follows:
Royalty For the portion of the Hammer Price (in Euro)
4.00% up to 50,000
3.00% between 50,000.01 and 200,000
1.00% between 200,000.01 and 350,000
0.50% between 350,000.01 and 500,000
0.25% in excess of 500,000
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Buyer's Premium :
The buyer's premium is 20%, except those lots asterisked (*) in the title for which Value Added Tax (VAT) will be added to the premium, resulting in a buyer's premium of 24% inclusive of VAT. Eligible items include manuscripts, prints, photographs, drawings, framed maps, paintings, pens and other objects which are subject to VAT at a rate of 20% on the buyer's premium as part of the Auctioneers Margin Scheme. VAT zero-rated items such as books, unframed maps and albums are not subject to VAT on the buyer's premium.
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Payment is preferred by direct Bank Transfer to our bank account. Our bank details will be supplied to you with your invoice.
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We are not specialist shippers. Some items, such as framed & glazed or fragile goods, will require specialist handling and buyers will be asked to use Mailboxes or RF Shipping Ltd. (details below).
For non-fragile items and items of reasonably small size, we offer an in-house packing and shipping facility for UK buyers. When possible, purchases will be sent by either Royal Mail Special Delivery or DPD overnight service. The charge for this service is variable (£15 minimum per parcel) and will be added to your invoice. Please note shipments to the Highlands and Islands may require shipment by courier and may be more expensive. Please contact us for a quote before bidding.
For larger packages and fragile goods, we recommend Mailboxes, Pack & Send or RF Shipping Ltd who will collect fully paid-for purchases from us twice a week and liaise with the buyer direct. For more information please contact Sarah Ball by telephone on +44 (0)1285 860006 or email sarah@dominicwinter.co.uk. These companies will require payment direct for their services.
