A surely unique opportunity to acquire in a single offering at auction a complete set of cased gold, silver and bronze prize medals from the 1908 Lond

A surely unique opportunity to acquire in a single offering at auction a complete set of cased gold, silver and bronze prize medals from the 1908 London Olympic Games all awarded to Great Britain competitors, each with an identical design by Bertram Mackennal, by Vaughton of Birmingham in hallmarked gold, silver and bronze, two young maidens are crowning a winning athlete, the reverse with St George slaying the dragon, the gold medal in a red leather case with maroon velvet lining, the silver medal in a dark blue case with purple velvet lining, and the bronze medal in a tan leather case with emerald green velvet lining, the rim of each medal and its case lid inscribed as follows: WINNER, WATER POLO, CHARLES SYDNEY SMITH; OLYMPIC GAMES, WINNER, WATER POLO, LONDON, 1908 SECOND PRIZE RUNNING DEER TEAMS OLYMPIC GAMES, SECOND PRIZE, RUNNING DEER, TEAMS, LONDON, 1908 THIRD PRIZE BANTAM BOXING OLYMPIC GAMES, THIRD PRIZE, BANTAM BOXING, LONDON, 1908 Surely a unique opportunity to acquire examples of all three prize medals from the first London Olympic Games of 1908 in one lot at auction. The gold medal was presented to Charles Sydney Smith (1876-1951). He was born in Wigan the ninth of eleven children. He was the Great Britain water polo goalkeeper who won back-to-back golds at London 1908 & Stockholm 1912 and then, remarkably, returned to the sport aged 41, to help win British gold for a third time at Antwerp in 1920. For the complete record he was still competing at Paris in 1924, but GB were eliminated in the first round. At Stockholm in 1912 he became the first competing athlete to be invited to be the team's flag bearer at the Opening Ceremony. The silver medal relates to the Great Britain team that finished second in the men's team single shot running deer competition, one of 15 events in the shooting programme at the London 1908 Games. The team consisted of four marksmen Charles Nix, William Russell Lane-Joynt, Walter Ellicott and Ted Ranken. It is not known to whom this particular medal was awarded. A deer-shaped target made 10 runs of 75 feet which lasted about four seconds. Each competitor was allowed one shot per run from a distance of 110 yards. Concentric circles were drawn on the 'deer' with 1-4 points available on the target. Great Britain narrowly missed out on gold accumulating one point less than Sweden's winning score of 86 from a possible 160 points. The bronze medal was won by the British bantamweight boxer William 'Wally' Webb. Britain in fact won a clean sweep of medals in this weight division. Wally Webb had lost to his compatriot John Condon in the semi-final. Very little is known of Webb. He was born 19th November 1882 and affiliated to the 17th North Middlesex School of Arms Amateur Boxing Club.