Doug Whetton: the lost collection

[alex_revell]

To save me climbing up into my loft and searching through all my old correspondence, can anyone remind me of the year of Doug Whetton's death. There is an interesting mystery here. After his death, his girl friend, whose name, from memory, was I think, Valerie Murfin, contacted me to ask what she should do with his collection. I advised her that I thought it should go to the RAF Museum. She agreed, but having no transport could not take it herself. I offered to collect her and the collection and take them to the RAF Museum. She agreed, but when I later wrote to her to arrange a date for the transfer I had no reply and all attempts to trace her whereabouts, both by myself and the RAF Museum, failed. She was no longer at the address/phone number I had; she had simply vanished from the face of the earth. Even her friends in Derby knew nothing of her whereabouts and were mystified by her disappearance. By his own account Doug had a potentially valuable collection - both from the historical and financial viewpoint - which included Bodenschatz's photo album. So, come on you aerodrome detectives, instead of trying to find out the last time von R had a bowel movement or when his mum took him out of nappies, try and find out what happened to the Whetton collection. If Valerie changed her mind and sold it to a private collector it has never surfaced.