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On orders from King George VI a sword was designed in 1943 by R. M.Y. Gleadowe, former Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford. This sword was to be presented to the people of Stalingrad (now renamed Volgograd)
Once the design was approved by King George VI. A committee of nine members of the Goldsmiths Hall supervised the work of England’s best craftsmen.
The sword blade was forged by Wilkinson Sword, and the two swordsmiths chosen for this important undertaking were 86-year-old Tom Beasley and his assistant, Sid Rouse.
The special steel for the blade was supplied by Sanderson Brothers and Newbould of Sheffield. It was acid-etched with the words: ‘To the steel-hearted citizens of Stalingrad, the gift of George the Sixth, in token of homage of the British people’.
The inscription was translated into Russian on the reverse of the 36in double-edged blade.
Corporal L. G. Durbin RAF, was granted leave from his normal RAF duties after the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths approached the Air Ministry for his assistance in doing all the gold and silver work on the sword and scabbard
The crossguard was ten inches wide and solid silver, and the two-handed grip was bound with gold wire and fitted with a rock-crystal pommel. The scabbard was covered with crimson Morocco leather and fitted with silver mounts bearing the Royal Arms, Crown and Cipher, and three gold-mounted red enamel stars.
After Wilkinson Sword manufactured the sword they had it transported to Tehran where Winston Churchill handed it to Stalin on behalf of King George VI, in the ballroom of the Russian Embassy at the Tehran Conference on November 29, 1943.
Among those present were
resident Roosevelt, The British, Russian and U.S. Chiefs of Staff. But the place of honour however, was held by Marshal Kiementi Voroshilov, defender of Stalingrad.
The original Stalingrad sword is still in the city where it hangs in the Battle Of Stalingrad Museum.
There are three replicas in existence and Wilkinson Sword is currently arranging a long-term loan of one of these replicas to the Medmenham Collection where it will be on display to the public at the Military Intelligence Museum near Shefford in Bedfordshire.
Once the design was approved by King George VI. A committee of nine members of the Goldsmiths Hall supervised the work of England’s best craftsmen.
The sword blade was forged by Wilkinson Sword, and the two swordsmiths chosen for this important undertaking were 86-year-old Tom Beasley and his assistant, Sid Rouse.
The special steel for the blade was supplied by Sanderson Brothers and Newbould of Sheffield. It was acid-etched with the words: ‘To the steel-hearted citizens of Stalingrad, the gift of George the Sixth, in token of homage of the British people’.
The inscription was translated into Russian on the reverse of the 36in double-edged blade.
Corporal L. G. Durbin RAF, was granted leave from his normal RAF duties after the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths approached the Air Ministry for his assistance in doing all the gold and silver work on the sword and scabbard
The crossguard was ten inches wide and solid silver, and the two-handed grip was bound with gold wire and fitted with a rock-crystal pommel. The scabbard was covered with crimson Morocco leather and fitted with silver mounts bearing the Royal Arms, Crown and Cipher, and three gold-mounted red enamel stars.
After Wilkinson Sword manufactured the sword they had it transported to Tehran where Winston Churchill handed it to Stalin on behalf of King George VI, in the ballroom of the Russian Embassy at the Tehran Conference on November 29, 1943.
Among those present were
resident Roosevelt, The British, Russian and U.S. Chiefs of Staff. But the place of honour however, was held by Marshal Kiementi Voroshilov, defender of Stalingrad. The original Stalingrad sword is still in the city where it hangs in the Battle Of Stalingrad Museum.
There are three replicas in existence and Wilkinson Sword is currently arranging a long-term loan of one of these replicas to the Medmenham Collection where it will be on display to the public at the Military Intelligence Museum near Shefford in Bedfordshire.
