Video: Case of the clerk who became desert war hero

But delve a little deeper into this plastic suitcase and it tells of an amazing journey – one which transformed a council clerk into a battlefield hero and back again into a Town Hall bureaucrat.

Grammar school boy Thomas Turnbull – who was known as Tommy – was 31 when he was called up to join the 13th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery, in September 1939.

His working life as an administrator ill-prepared him for combat, but his meticulous clerk’s skills meant he left a fascinating record of what war, and his later life, was really like.

Expert John Morgan said he had never seen anything like the painstakingly-assembled scrapbook which documents Turnbull’s exploits in North Africa and later in Italy.

And a second scrapbook, which reveals the infinitely more mundane life he returned to as a housing officer for Sheffield Council, showed the huge contrasts men like Turnbull experienced during their lifetimes.

Turnbull was initially sent to Greece, but he was evacuated to North Africa as the Nazis invaded and joined Montgomery’s Desert Rats, where he immediately marked himself out as a leader.

He was awarded the Military Medal for his courage under fire in the desert, continuing to engage enemy tanks after a comrade was killed as they manned a Bofors gun.

And he later won an Oak Leaf after further bravery during the invasion of Italy led to a Mention in Dispatches, adding to his campaign medals which are also included in his immaculately- preserved collection.

Mr Morgan said: “There is nothing particularly unusual in terms of his bravery, there were a lot of brave men who won a lot of medals, and that’s not to take away from what he did.

“But what is unique is his scrapbook, and the painstaking nature of his record-keeping. Essentially this man was an administrator who found himself in the line of fire.

“Then we have the second scrapbook which is really very mundane because it’s about slum clearance in Sheffield, but taken with the rest of the story it is very much of interest.

“What is so fascinating is to compare and contrast the man who was obviously an administrator, but spent six years of his life being a front-line fighting man right from the beginning of the war.”

As well as the 48-page war scrapbook, the Turnbull collection also includes the Military Medal and Oak Leaf, 
the 1939-45 star, Africa Star, Italy Star, Defence Medal and War Medal.

A framed citation for the Military Medal is also among the memorabilia, along with a letter from Buckingham Palace and a map showing the Italian beaches where the Allies invaded.

Mr Morgan said some of the photographs Turnbull had included in his war scrapbook were particularly emotional, because some were taken the day before the Bofors gun was attacked. He added: “There is a series of photographs which were taken both before and after the day for which he won the Military Medal and the ones taken before show the men who died.

“There are amazing maps marked Most Secret showing the Italian beaches, a paper showing how he was given a £20 gratuity for winning the Military Medal and even a record of the 54 days leave he had accrued during his six years at war.”

Turnbull left the Army in January 1946 and rejoined Sheffield Council, where he worked until 1970, and although his exploits were well-known, his second scrapbook shows he and wife Betty lived a fairly quiet life in the city’s Meadowhead area.

The “after the war” scrapbook also contains photographs of him at office get-togethers, cuttings from housing journals and the letter he wrote telling bosses he wanted to retire.

Mr Morgan added: “When the family approached me and asked me to have a look at it I immediately knew it was a very special collection. In this kind of condition it is the kind of thing collectors go mad for, and I would expect it to fetch well around £1,800, maybe even more.”

The collection will be auctioned at Sheffield Auction Gallery on February 8.