A collection of assorted leather bindings, including Arthur ...

Estimate

£80 - £100

A collection of assorted leather bindings, including Arthur Conan Doyle, 'Sir Nigel', 1918, and 'The White Company', 1923, uniform Sandroyd School, Salisbury, prize leather bindings, 1923, each full tree calf gilt by Morrell, London, spines gilt in compartments, top edges gilt; Captain Marryat's Novels, 8 volumes, George Routledge, [nd], c.1900, early 20th Century uniform half calf gilt, spines gilt in compartments; George Macaulay Trevelyan, four early 20th Century titles including 'Garibaldi's Defence of the Roman Republic' etc, uniform half blue morocco gilt, spines gilt in compartments, top edges gilt, all "R.M. Groves Memorial Prize" R.A.F. bindings awarded to Flight Cadet M. Dawnay, December 1933, presentation labels at front of each volume, plus 1 other similar. All presented/inscribed to Wing Commander Michael Dawnay (33082), who survived the war but died in Larochegasse Vienna of gun shot wounds in 1946, aged 33. During the planning of the D-Day Normandy allied invasion, the British and Canadian beaches were originally given the codenames Gold, Jelly and Sword – all types of fish. The fish theme was chosen by General (later Field Marshal) Bernard Montgomery, the Commander in Chief of the Allied ground forces for the invasion.

But Prime Minister Winston Churchill disapproved of the word ‘Jelly’ for the Canadian beach, because it sounded inappropriate for a location where many men might die. Instead, Wing Commander Michael Dawnay suggested Juno, his wife's first name. In Roman mythology. Juno was a goddess, the daughter of Saturn and mother to Mars and Vulcan.

This appealed to Churchill's belief that codenames should reflect the historical significance of events. (15)