Auction Catalogue

17 September 2020

Starting at 10:00 AM

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Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

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Lot

№ 766 x

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17 September 2020

Hammer Price:
£2,600

A ‘French Resistance’ Legion of Honour, M.B.E., and King’s Medal for Courage group of nine attributed to Mlle. Paulette Arcelin, who served as a Courier with the French Resistance during the Second World War in Lyon, before she was captured in 1943, was interrogated by Claus Barbie, the ‘Butcher of Lyon’, and sent to Ravensbruck Concentration Camp

France, Fourth Republic
, Legion of Honour, Officer’s badge, silver-gilt and enamel, with rosette on riband; Croix de Guerre, reverse dated 1939, bronze; Medal for Voluntary Services in the Free French Forces, silvered, 1 clasp, Liberation; Medal of Liberated France 1944, bronze; Medal for those Deported or Interned for Resistance Activities, bronze, Interne; War Commemorative Medal 1939-45, bronze; Cross for the Combatant Volunteer of the Resistance, gilt; Great Britain, The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, M.B.E. (Civil) Member’s 2nd type badge, silver; King’s Medal for Courage in the Cause of Freedom, all unnamed as issued, mounted court-style, significant enamel damage and restoration to first, otherwise nearly extremely fine (9) £700-£900

Mademoiselle Paulette Arcelin, later Mme. Plaisant, was born in Lyon in 1925, and served with the French Resistance during the Second World War, as a courier and in the landing fields of her area of Lyon. She was captured in 1943, and after interrogation by Claus Barbie, the ‘Butcher of Lyon’, was sent to Ravensbruck Concentration Camp. Subsequently moved further east, she was liberated by the Russians in 1945. For her services during the War she was awarded the King’s Medal for Courage in the Cause of Freedom, and was presented with her medal in 1949. She died in 1962.

Note: The Central Chancery File lists five people with the surname ‘Arcelin’ as receiving honorary awards: Mademoiselle Marguerite Arcelin and Mademoiselle Madeleine Arcelin (both awarded M.B.E.s); Monsieur Joseph Arcelin (awarded the B.E.M.); and Madame Marie Therese Arcelin and Mademoiselle Paulette Arcelin (both awarded King’s Medals for Courage)- it is likely that they were all members of the same family. There is no definite record of Paulette Arcelin receiving an M.B.E., but equally, given the nature of the work involved, and the fact that she may have operated under a codename, it is possible that she, like her sisters (?) also received an M.B.E.

Sold with two original letters regarding the award of the King’s Medal for Courage, one named to Mademoiselle
Paulette Arcelin, and dated 19 June 1948, and the other named to Mrs P. Paaisant and dated 25 July 1949, and other copied research.