'Passionate collector' selling Churchill VE Day item

A microphone used by Winston Churchill to deliver a speech on VE Day in 1945 is to be sold at auction.

It is believed the Grampian radio microphone was used in one of four speeches Churchill made on 8 May 1945, when the surrender of Nazi Germany was declared.

Auctioneer Liz Poole said the unique piece comes from a "passionate collector of items associated with Churchill over many decades".

It will be sold by the Cotswold Auction Company in Cheltenham on 22 September and is expected to fetch up to £12,000.

Poole said the collector, called Gerry O'Brien, was also the former landlord of The Churchill Arms in Kensington.

The microphone had previously been the showpiece at a restaurant in New Mexico, USA before being bought Gloucestershire collector George Ridgeon, who later sold it to O'Brien.

The plaque on its base reads: "The Price of Freedom is Eternal Vigilance. Winston S. Churchill" and has an underside typed label stating, "This microphone was used on the VE Day gathering at Westminster Chapel by Winston S. Churchill after addressing his cabinet".

Included with it are several other items, such as a pair of prints of Churchill delivering his VE Day broadcast, where he can be seen seated behind similar microphones.

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