HMS Cossack

[robin bird]

As a child in post war Liverpool toys were hard to get. Die-cast model were just coming in at a time when there was food and sweet rationing. There was no chance of buying one. Fortunately I had an uncle who made toys for me out of wood and bits he had in the shed. While crude, they had scale and were influenced by history, i.e. warships and tanks. What's more this model of HMS Cossack actually floated on the boating lake in the park. Even more surprisingly it survives today after more than 80 years. A bit battered after numerous childhood battles on floorboards, adulthood and subsequent numerous homes. At times I have been tempted to restore the destroyer, famous for the Altmark incident in WW2, then sunk by a U-Boat. On reflection I have left is as it is, or was. p.s. I have a few other ships made by Uncle Ron including a Mersey tug boat built on the same scale as Cossack. I suspect he built them during WW2 when toys were even harder to get.

 

[locomotive]

I wouldn't restore it. Your uncle Ron made that for his nephew. With care and love. If you restored it, you would only detract from its value. It's value being Uncle Ron's fingerprints and tool marks.
I'd mount on a nice plinth of some sort and love it.

 

[robin bird]

Will do. Cheers

 

[robin bird]

Cheers. Will do. Cossack has a few of his ships to escort.

 

[wjbrandel]

He did good work on them

 

[Tommergun]

Those are really cool, he put a lot of effort into them. What great keepsakes. I would leave them as is.

 

[robin bird]

Thanks for the interest. Will tell the grand children of the history. All made from a photograph in a newspaper or from memory after trip down to Mersey.

 

[BarleyBop]

Will tell the grand children

That's what it's all about! Wonderful keepsakes, living history.