Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The Second War 1945 North West Europe ‘Paarlo’ M.C. group of eleven awarded to Captain Robert Maxwell, Queen’s Royal Regiment, who fought across Europe from the Normandy Landings to the capture of Berlin. Later rising to prominence as a flamboyant and controversial media magnate, Member of Parliament, fraudster and suspected spy - his mysterious drowning off the Canary Islands in 1991, ruled accidental by a subsequent inquest, left behind financial scandal and a fallen business empire and continues to excite speculation and conspiracy theories

Military Cross, G.VI.R., reverse officially dated 1945, in Royal Mint case of issue; 1939-45 Star; France and Germany Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Poland, Republic, Cross of Valour 1944, bronze, unnumbered; Czechoslovakia, Republic, Military Medal for Merit; War Commemorative Medal 1939-45; Bulgaria, People’s Republic, Order of Stara Planina, First Class neck badge, 68mm, silver, gilt and enamel, in (damaged) case of issue; Finland, Republic, Order of the White Rose, Second Class set of insignia, by Tillander, Helsinki, comprising neck badge, 51mm, silver-gilt and enamel, and breast star, 78mm, silver, with gilt and enamelled centre and gilt retaining pin; Poland, People’s Republic, Order of Merit of the People’s Republic, Second Class set of insignia, comprising neck badge, 60mm, silver-gilt and enamels, and breast star, 81mm, silver and gilt, with silver and red enamelled centre; together with the related miniature awards, these also including Swedish Order of the Polar Star, the four campaign medals all official later issues, generally extremely fine (lot) £6,000-£8,000

Provenance: Sotheby’s, January 1993, when sold by direction of the Joint Court-appointed Receiver to the Estate of the late Robert Maxwell, M.C.

M.C. London Gazette 12 April 1945:
‘For gallant and distinguished service in North West Europe’

The original recommendation states: ‘During the attack on Paarlo on 29 January 1945, Lieutenant Maxwell was leading his Platoon when a heavy artillery concentration fell on and near the Platoon killing and wounding several men.
The attack was in danger of losing momentum but this Officer, showing powers of leadership of the highest order, controlled his men with great skill and kept up the advance. During the night another Platoon of the Company was counter attacked and partially overrun. An attempt to restore the position with another Platoon failed but Lieutenant Maxwell repeatedly asked to be allowed to lead another attempt; this request was eventually granted.
This Officer then led two of his Sections across bullet swept ground with great dash and determination and succeeded in contacting the Platoon who had been holding out in some buildings. Showing no regard for his own safety he led his section in the difficult job of clearing the enemy out of the buildings, inflicting many casualties and causing the remainder to withdraw.
By his magnificent example and offensive spirit this officer was responsible for the relief of the platoon and the restoration of the situation.’

Robert Maxwell was born Ján Ludvîk Hyman Binyamin Hoch in 1923 in the small town of Slatinské Doly in Carpathian Ruthenia, Czechoslvakia (later Hungary and now Solotvyno, Ukraine). He was one of seven children born into a poor Yiddish speaking Orthodox Jewish family, many members of which died in Auschwitz after the occupation of Hungary by the Nazis in 1944. Having left home for France in 1939, aged 16, Maxwell joined the Czechoslovak Army in exile in Marseilles in May 1940 but after the fall of France and evacuation of the British Army, he transferred in Britain to the Pioneer Corps and subsequently in 1943 to the North Staffordshire Regiment. He served throughout the campaign across Europe from the Normandy Landings to the fall of Berlin, was commissioned into the Queen’s Royal Regiment in January 1945 and the same month won the Military Cross at Paarlo, Netherlands:

'During the night 29th/30th [January 1945] about fifty enemy crossed the river in assault boats and, preceded by heavy shelling and mortaring, made an unexpected counter-attack on “A” Company in Paarlo. The Germans got into the houses held by 8 Platoon (Lieutenant M. L. Baker) and there was fierce fighting in the dark. In one house Lance-Corporal Dennis most gallantly held them at bay with his Sten gun until 7 Platoon, splendidly led by Second-Lieutenant R. Maxwell, counter-attacked with tank support and cleared the enemy from the village. Our artillery then took a heavy toll as the Germans withdrew across the river. Ten prisoners were taken and there were numbers of other casualties, including the enemy company commander. Our losses were seven killed and wounded...’ (History of the Queen's Royal Regiment. Vol VIII 1924-1948, compiled by Major R. C. G. Foster, M.C. refers).

Maxwell received his award from Field Marshall Montgomery. He achieved the rank of Captain by the end of the war and afterwards for two years was a press censor for the foreign office in Berlin, becoming a British citizen in in 1946 and changing his name to Robert Maxwell in 1948.

Using contacts gained during the Allied occupation, Maxwell made a start in business by becoming the British and United States distributor for Springer Verlag, a publisher of scientific books. In 1951 he bought a controlling stake in Butterworth Springer, renamed it Pergammon Press and rapidly built it into a major publishing house.

By the 1960s, Maxwell’s business success had made him hugely wealthy and in 1964, representing the Labour Party, he was elected Member of Parliament for Buckingham, holding the seat until 1970. In 1984, he acquired Mirror Group Newspapers, giving him control of six British Newspapers, including the pro-Labour Daily Mirror, and precipitating a media war between himself and Rupert Murdoch, the proprietor of the News of the World and The Sun.

Maxwell rescued the third division football club Oxford United from bankruptcy in 1982. As chairman, he helped to lead them to the top flight of English football in 1985 and the club won the League Cup the following year.

By 1991 Maxwell’s business empire was heavily in debt and struggling to remain solvent. On 5 November 1991, he was found to be missing from his yacht, Lady Ghislaine (named after his youngest daughter) which was cruising off the Canary Islands. His naked body was later recovered from the Atlantic Ocean. The official ruling at an inquest held in December 1991 was death by a heart attack combined with accidental drowning although three pathologists at the inquest had been unable to agree on the cause of death.

Maxwell was afforded a lavish funeral on the Mount of Olives, Jerusalem. The ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state occasion, was attended by many dignitaries and politicians and no fewer than six serving and former heads of Israeli intelligence listened while Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir eulogised him stating ‘he has done more for Israel than can today be told’ (Gideon’s Spies: The Secret History of the Mossad by Gordon Thomas refers).

Robert Maxwell’s death triggered the complete collapse of his publishing empire. As lenders rushed to call in their debts, it emerged that Maxwell had used hundreds of millions of pounds from his companies’ pension funds in an unauthorised attempt to save his businesses from bankruptcy.

In 2003, Foreign Office papers were released which revealed that British intelligence officers had suspected Maxwell of being a Soviet agent with one report describing him as ‘a thoroughly bad character and almost certainly financed by Russia’. The FBI however found nothing in a decade of monitoring him, despite his known links to MI6, the KGB and the Israeli intelligence service, Mossad.


The lot, which is accompanied by a letter of provenance from Mrs Elizabeth Maxwell, also includes the following commemorative and presentation items:
(i) Israel, Gold Medal, 1973, 22 carat gold, 30g, 35mm in small fitted wooden case. Mintage 500. Commemorating the 25th anniversary of ‘Maariv, the newspaper with the widest circulation in Israel’
(ii) State of Israel 40th Anniversary ‘Gold’ Medal, 1988, the reverse of medal and the plaque inside the lid of its wooden presentation box inscribed ‘Presented to Robert Maxwell for Exemplary Service to Israel and the Jewish people, State of Israel Bonds, June 5, 1988’
(iii) A set of 5 presentation gold medals, by Berkowitsch of Zurich, each medal commemorating an episode in the life of the recipient, in its fitted case.
(iv) Presentation medal of the International Men and Women for Peace Movement, 18ct gold and enamels, 18g approx, reverse inscribed ‘To Robert Maxwell 1990’, in its fitted case.
(v) 700th Anniversary of the Sesmet Let Staronove Synagogue, Czechoslovakia, 1990, bronze, in its fitted case.