Bouncing bomb inventor's items sold at auction

A collection of personal items belonging to the inventor of the bouncing bomb have been sold at auction.

The objects, which included marbles used in early experiments for the bomb by engineer Sir Barnes Wallis, who lived in Leatherhead, Surrey, went under the hammer at Denhams in West Sussex.

The marbles had been given an estimate of £20,000 to £30,000 but did not meet the reserve price and were not sold, the auctioneers said.

A pair of black and white aerial photographs linked to the 1943 "Dam Busters" raid sold for £17,500.

One of the top-selling items was an oil painting by Alfred Egerton Cooper – Sir Barnes's best man – which sold for £14,500.

Bouncing bomb material included Sir Barnes's CBE neck badge awarded in 1943, which sold for £8,000, and a replica catapult which went for £3,400.

Leo Denham, managing director of Denhams, said that the firm was "honoured" to be trusted by the family in selling a historically significant collection.

Several objects were donated to the RAF Museum, which is based in London and the Midlands.

Dr Harry Raffal, head of collections and research at the museum, said: "Throughout the process, the family were keen to ensure that the legacy of Sir Barnes Wallis would remain an important part of the RAF Museum's national collection.

"Today, our visitors can visit the RAF Museum to discover more about Sir Barnes Wallis' pioneering work and explore how he helped the RAF bring about victory in the Second World War".

Before the auction, Wallis' daughter, Elisabeth Gaunt, said that she hoped buyers would remember her father as "tender, spiritual and sensitive beyond all belief", adding he was "not a war-like man".

The inventor tested his bombs at RAF Manston, near Ramsgate in Kent, before they were used in Operation Chastise, destroying German dams in the Ruhr valley in May 1943.

Operation Chastise and Wallis' bouncing bombs were immortalised in the 1955 film The Dambusters.

Wallis, who died in 1979, famously developed the bouncing bomb using marbles in a water tub in the garden of White Hill House in Effingham, in Surrey.

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