Teenage soldier's Falklands medal could fetch £70k

Baz Grayling was invested with the Military Medal at Buckingham Palace in November 1982 for his role in the Battle of Goose Green

A medal awarded to a teenage soldier who helped take a machine gun post during the Falklands War could be sold for up to £70,000.

Baz Grayling, who grew up in Felixstowe, Suffolk, received the Military Medal for his part in the Battle of Goose Green in May 1982, as a 19-year-old corporal.

He later said he was saved by his water bottle, which deflected the Argentine bullets. His best friend Pte Gaz Bingley was killed in the night-time assault.

Mr Grayling died aged 60 in December and his widow Sheri has put his medals up for auction through Noonans.

"He tried to talk to me about selling the medals when he was sick, and I wouldn't hear it," said Ms Grayling.

"So, he told Shelly, my daughter, to make me do it so that I would have some financial security."

His Military Medal (left) is being auctioned alongside two other service medals; his Army career lasted more than 10 years

The corporal served with the 2nd Battalion The Parachute Regiment, known as 2 Para, during the war.

The conflict began in April 1982, when Argentina invaded the remote British overseas territory, and the Battle of Goose Green was its first and longest battle.

Mr Grayling's company commander, Maj Phil Neame, said he and Pte Bingley displayed the "immediate get up and go and flair that really got us out of a very sticky situation".

Lance-Corp Bill Bentley, 2 Para's medic, said the pair made "a frontal charge on an Argie machine-gun post" and Mr Grayling "was hit at close range in his water bottle; it exploded, shattering his hip".

The conflict ended on 14 June 1982, having claimed the lives of 255 British servicemen, three islanders and 649 Argentine personnel.

Goose Green was a 14-hour struggle, which pitted the heavily outnumbered 2 Para, without proper fire support, against the Argentine garrison

Mr Grayling stayed in the Army and met his wife while on rest leave in Miami, Florida, in 1988.

She was a single mother with two young children, but he told his friends "she's the one for me", Ms Grayling told the auction house.

Within two years, he had left the Parachute Regiment and moved to Tampa, Florida, to marry her.

They both worked at the city's Pasco High School for 20 years, where he was a discipline assistant and coached soccer, track, cross country and girls' tennis.

"I've never known anyone like him before, he's the most upstanding person I could've ever known and probably ever will know," said Ms Grayling.

Christopher Mellor-Hill, Noonan's head of client liaison, described Mr Grayling as "a true hero".

The auction will be held on 8 October.