Allied art section? Major Ronald Edmund Balfour

Discussion in 'British Army Units - Others' started by Philip Reinders, Oct 12, 2008.

  1. Philip Reinders

    Philip Reinders Very Senior Member

    Casualty
    Major BALFOUR, RONALD EDMOND
    Service Number 177838
    Died 10/03/1945
    Aged 41
    King's Royal Rifle Corps attd. Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Section, S.H.A.E.F.
    Son of Lt.-Col. Kenneth Robert Balfour, and of May Eleanor Balfour (nee Broadwood), of Marlow, Buckinghamshire. M.A.
    INSCRIPTION: GO THY WAY... FOR GOD HATH ALREADY ACCEPTED THY WORKS" ECCLES. IX. 7
    Buried at REICHSWALD FOREST WAR CEMETERY
    Cemetery/memorial reference: 46. F. 7.
    Location: Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
    Number of casualties: 7500
     
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  2. dbf

    dbf Moderatrix MOD

  3. Paul Reed

    Paul Reed Ubique

    I will see if there is anything on him in the KRRC Chronicles; well found, Philip.
     
  4. dbf

    dbf Moderatrix MOD

    Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    "Two distinguished monuments officers were killed while helping to rescue cultural treasures in Europe: Captain Walter Huchthausen, an American scholar and architect attached to the U.S. 9th Army in France and Germany; and Major Ronald Edmund Balfour, a British scholar attached to the 2nd Canadian Army in France and Germany."


    The National Archives | Search other Archives | Accessions to Repositories | Major Accessions to Bath and North East Somerset Record Office, 2005

    "Ronald Edmond Balfour, historian: correspondence and reports compiled during military service with the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Section in the Second World War (copies) 1935-45 (Misc 5)"


    http://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/development/kingsparade/issues/spring2006.pdf

    "In September 2005 the Archive Centre received material to augment the Ronald Balfour collection. Ronald, who had been appointed a Fellow and Lecturer in History for the College in 1930, joined the Ministry of Information at the outbreak of World War II. He had a varied military career, ending in the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives section of the Allied Forces, and most of the new documents concern his work with MFA&A. Ronald Balfour was killed helping to move sculptured altarpieces from the Christ the King Church in Kleve to the train station for removal to Goch for safekeeping. The only shell to fall on Kleve that day landed in the road next to him. Balfour was on one side of the street, the other men and the cart were on the other side, and only Balfour died in the blast. The altarpieces were saved, but the rest of the church treasures were lost to looters."
     
  5. Smudger Jnr

    Smudger Jnr Our Man in Berlin

    Allied governments must have insisted that looted fine art and treasures were restored to their rightful owners.
    By employing experts within their ranks it must have been the Militaries way of ensuring that found hoards of looted treasures and works of art actually were returned to the rightful owners.
    dbf, a good link to Kings stating how Balfour died, very unlucky. <first web site I am unable to open from the link.

    It just goes to show the different facets of the service.

    Tom
     
  6. Paul Reed

    Paul Reed Ubique

    Found something in the KRRC Chronicle for 1945. His photo:

    [​IMG]
     
  7. Paul Reed

    Paul Reed Ubique

    Obituary:

    [​IMG]
     
  8. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    Top thread.
    Something different.
     
  9. Philip Reinders

    Philip Reinders Very Senior Member

    Thats what I notice when I came across his name and unit,interested so much came up on him, thanks D and Paul.
     
  10. Smudger Jnr

    Smudger Jnr Our Man in Berlin

    Paul.

    That was a super post and as Owen pointed out, something different.I found it completely absorbing to read.
    The man must have been really special after all the glowing tributes.

    Tom
     
  11. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    Remembered Marlow Buckinghamshire

    Major RONALD EDMOND BALFOUR

    Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Section, S.H.A.E.F.
    who died age 41
    on 10 March 1945
    Son of Lt.-Col. Kenneth Robert Balfour, and of May Eleanor Balfour (nee Broadwood), of Marlow, Buckinghamshire. M.A.
    Remembered with honour
    REICHSWALD FOREST WAR CEMETERY
     

    Attached Files:

  12. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    Major Balfour was the son of Lieutenant Colonel Kenneth Robert Balfour and May Eleanor Balfour (née Broadwood) of Marlow, Buckinghamshire, England.

    Major Balfour was a historian and Fellow of Kings College, Cambridge, to which he left his entire personal library of 8,000 books.

    During World War II he was a British Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives (MFAA) officer with the 2nd Canadian Army. His service number was 177838. He was in the King's Royal Rifle Corps regiment. Major Balfour was killed in action while rescuing cultural treasures in Cleves, Germany.

    Lt. Col. Sir Leonard Woolley, British MFAA officer, said:

    "It (Major Balfour's death) is a great and unexpected blow. He had written only the day before, so cheerfully, delighted with being at the front; then he was killed in action, where actually engaged in saving some of those works of art which he loved so much. He had done wonderfully good work, as those who knew him knew he would do; he leaves a gap in our service which no one will be able to fill so well. The whole field of art history has suffered a tragic loss."
    [​IMG]


    [​IMG]


    https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56032347/ronald-edmond-balfour#view-photo=83925151
    Balfour, Maj. Ronald Edmond | Monuments Men Foundation
     
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  13. harkness

    harkness Well-Known Member

    Balfour_01.jpg
     
    dbf likes this.

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