£28k for footballer's war medals

Wartime medals belonging to a former West Bromwich Albion player who went on to become one of the first members of the SAS are set to fetch up to £28,000 at auction.

Seven medals awarded to Sergeant Harold White will be up for sale later this month, 26 years after his death in 1982.

The medals include the Military Medal he won with L Detachment – which later became the first ever SAS Regiment – during the Second World War. Sergeant White was born in Wednesbury in 1916 and played right back for Albion in the late 1930s before signing up to the Royal Army Service Core in 1940, fighting in Sicily, occupied France and over the Rhine.

Sgt White was still only in his mid-20s when he was awarded the Military Medal in 1942 for a raid on an aerodrome in December 1941, the recommendation for which was signed by Special Air Service (SAS) founder, David Stirling.

He received the honour for taking part in five raids, personally destroying more than 20 aircraft while under heavy enemy fire.

He shot his way out from a "hopeless" position surrounded by the enemy.

London-based auctioneers Spink, which is selling the medals on July 24, confirmed that Sgt White joined the L Detachment on September 6,1941.

A spokesman said: "He started service with L Detachment the day after 'Gentleman Jim' Almonds arrived at Kabrit training camp in the Suez Canal Zone.

"Here White would have undergone a severe parachute training regime like no other he would have experienced, with an emphasis on adaptation and survival."

When Harold White heard that he had been awarded the Military Medal for his part in this action, he wrote home to Wednesbury to tell his parents and assure them that he was in hospital, but that he hoped to be back on duty soon.

He was 29 by the time the war ended in 1945 and his injuries meant that he could no longer play professional football. A letter from West Bromwich Albion, which is being sold with his medals, said: "We believe that, but for these injuries, he would have been an international footballer of the top grade."

Harold White made 36 league appearances for West Brom in the 1938-1939 season.