Medals awarded to a hero teenage soldier who fought in a key Falklands War battle have sold for £65,000.
Baz Grayling was just 19 when he fought in the Battle of Goose Green during the 1982 conflict with Argentina.
He helped take a machine gun post, but tragically his best friend, Pte Gaz Bingley, was killed in the night-time assault.
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Cpl Grayling later revealed he owed his life to his water bottle, which deflected a bullet.
He was awarded the Military Medal for gallantry, as reported by Need To Know.
Baz, who grew up in Felixstowe, Suffolk, served with the 2nd Battalion, Parachute Regiment (2 Para).
He died aged 60 in December (2024) and his American widow Sheri put his medals up for auction.
The Falklands War began in April 1982 when Argentina invaded the remote British overseas territory.
The Battle of Goose Green was the first and longest engagement of the conflict.
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, recalled the pair made a frontal charge on a machine-gun post and Mr Grayling “was hit at close range in his water bottle; it exploded, shattering his hip”.
The war ended in June 1982, claiming the lives of 255 British servicemen, three islanders and 649 Argentine personnel.
Baz met Sheri while on rest leave in Miami, Florida, in 1988 and moved to the US two years later to marry her.
The couple worked at Pasco High School for 20 years, where he was a discipline assistant coaching soccer, track, cross country and girls’ tennis.
Ms Grayling revealed her late husband had tried to talk to her about selling the medals when he was ill, but she refused so he asked her daughter Shelly to make her do it.
She said: “I’d never known anyone like him before, he’s the most upstanding person I could’ve ever known and probably ever will know.
“We were like newlyweds for 36 years – right up to the end.”
The Military Medal was bought by a collector of British gallantry honours.
Auctioneer Christopher Mellor-Hill, of Noonans, said: “Having met the family and getting to know what a wonderful man Baz Grayling was, I am very pleased to see Baz’s medals did so well.
“Knowing that it was his wish to give his widow some added financial security with their sale, we are very pleased that this has been achieved with today’s auction result.”
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