An Antiques Roadshow guest was left reeling when the true value of his relative's war medals were revealed.
The guest appeared on the latest episode of the BBC show, joined by military expert Mark Smith as they discussed the special medals belonging to his wife's great-great-great-grandfather. Major-General Sir Denis Pack took part in the fight at Waterloo and was honoured for his "major" role in supporting the war efforts of the UK.
During the BBC One show, Mark discussed the importance of the medals, and how they were more unusual as they were the miniature medals worn to special dinners. It was in contrast to the usual medals which would be far too big for this purpose.
Mark said: "I've been looking forward very much to looking at these medals. Now, we have an etching, as it were I suppose, of a man here, wearing what looks like hundreds of medals. Who was this man and who was he to you?"
"This man was Major-General Sir Denis Pack, who amongst other wars, fought at Waterloo, and he was my wife's great-great-great-grandfather," the guest confirmed, as Mark added he was "Wellington's right-hand man".
The guest continued: "He was up front. He was wounded nine times and he was mentioned five times in both Houses of Parliament, commending his valour, which is quite astonishing, we think."
Talk soon turned to the special set of medals in front of them.
"But what we've got here are a set of miniature medals. Now today, miniature medals are worn on evening dress. And they represent the big, the full-size medal. But you can't wear them at dinner. It is such an incredible array of medals, and in his day, they were made of gold and they were made of precious metals and real diamonds," he added.
"So that thing around his neck is a rare medal in itself - it's the Army Gold Cross. It was given to general field officers, people like Wellington would have one of these. The actual cross itself has the names of four battles inscribed amongst the arms, and then the clasps on the ribbon represents another battle. Now, he has the four battles on the medal and then he has seven clasps.
"There's only two men who ever got seven. He's one of them. You have the Order of the Tower and Sword, you have the Waterloo Medal over there, and the representation of the Army Gold Cross with seven clasps - they are really unusual. They are miniatures, they do not command the price of the larger medal. However, easily £25,000 would be very very reasonable for that set of medals."
After hearing about the high price of the medals, the guest still vowed to keep them in the family.
"Absolutely delighted. And of course, they're going to stay in the family, hopefully always," the guest added.
