One man's mission to preserve WWII memorabilia

Ray Fricker has travelled across the country collecting items

A man who believes he has "one of the best private collections" of World War Two memorabilia in the UK wants to sell it to a museum for posterity.

Ray Fricker’s interest was triggered when he found a helmet while playing as child among demolished housing near Manchester.

"They were regenerating Ashton New Road and they pulled a lot of houses down with air raid shelters at the back,” the 67-year-old said.

“Me and my friends began playing in them and the first item I found was a British Tommy helmet. That was the start of it."

The collection includes dozens of military helmets and gas masks

Over the years, he has collected items from the US, Russia, Germany and France.

He estimates some of the memorabilia, which includes six machine guns, a mine sweeping device and a 1940s radio, are worth about £2,000 each.

A deactivated American Browning machine gun is among the memorabilia

Mr Fricker believes the items, which also include helmets, uniforms, body armour, gas masks and an air-raid siren, are “probably one of the best private collections in the country”.

“If I don't preserve it, nobody else will. Half this stuff would've been scrap by now and gone.

“I'm just looking after this for somebody else to take it over,” he said.

The collection includes a hand-held mine sweeping device

He says he wants to “sell the collection or donate it to a museum”.

“But I would want to keep everything together. I don't want the items to be sold separately."