User:Ashattock/Mysterious loss of the Gorle Victoria Cross

Mysterious loss of the Gorle Victoria Cross In the late 1990's Joan Howson nee Vincent nee Gorle whom was the heir of Robert Vaughan Gorle's Victoria Cross called in a valuer for various collectible items in her posession. After many days of valuation and some unusually long inexcusable delays in the valuer returning some stamp albums, they were eventually returned by him in person. His name is not immediately known but is currently being investigated at the time of this writing. The gentleman placed all the volumes of collectibles back in the wooden chest and after a lengthy discussion of the items valued, left.

The chest was locked and left for many months until the day one of Joan Howson's youngest grandchildren asked to see the stamps and the medals upon which time it was discovered that the Victoria Cross was missing along with 3 uncut diamonds from the Skeleton coast (hand-picked by Major Harry Gorle, DSO, ASC.) and several valuable stamps from the albums. By this time the valuer had long since left the country and was never seen or heard from again. The various stamps that were lost included a rare triangular straight-cut Cape of Good Hope in very good condition and an entire set of King Edward stamps of the Southern Rhodesia collection, all mint condition up to the £5 stamp and a used black overprinted £10 stamp. There were several other stamps that went missing of unknown type.

Joan Howson passed away early in 2005 at Pretoria in South Africa without ever seeing her brother's V.C. again. She passed on one of her last wishes to the same grandson to attempt to recover the medal and have it restored to the Vincent family once more. The hunt continues.

Notes

In the ongoing saga that has covered nearly 25 years of history, and several continents, the medal appears to not have changed hands very often. The alleged thief was never reported to the Zimbabwean authorities for lack of evidence and also because the alleged suspect was outside the jurisdiction of the country. David Vincent (Deceased 2006) was the only other surviving person known to have known the name of the person who is alleged to have taken the medal and the stamps. Unfortunately due to time and circumstance, this medal is now in public view but its current public provenance is in real doubt. The darker story is beginning to emerge.

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