![Ian Sayer Bank of England 11 12 1997](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/Ian_Sayer_Bank_of_England_11_12_1997.jpg)
Ian K. T. Sayer (born 30 October 1945) is a British
entrepreneur
Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...
,
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...
,
author
An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states:
"''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...
and
investigative journalist
Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years rese ...
. His
Sayer Transport Group (established in 1967 and sold in 1979) became part of the British and European overnight door to door express parcels delivery industry.
He is a
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
historian and studies
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
documentation. He is co-author of ''
Nazi Gold
Nazi gold (german: Raubgold, "stolen gold") is gold possessed by Nazi Germany. Much of the focus of the discussion is about how much of this was transferred by Germany to overseas banks during World War II; the ruling Nazi party executed a policy o ...
, The Story of the World’s Greatest Robbery'' and claims to remain the only private individual to have been responsible for the location and restitution of looted
Nazi gold
Nazi gold (german: Raubgold, "stolen gold") is gold possessed by Nazi Germany. Much of the focus of the discussion is about how much of this was transferred by Germany to overseas banks during World War II; the ruling Nazi party executed a policy o ...
. That claim remains unchallenged. As a
Nazi hunter
A Nazi hunter is an individual who tracks down and gathers information on alleged former Nazis, or SS members, and Nazi collaborators who were involved in the Holocaust, typically for use at trial on charges of war crimes and crimes against huma ...
, he has also tracked down a number of
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
s for
war criminal investigations, including SS General
Wilhelm Mohnke
Wilhelm Mohnke (15 March 1911 – 6 August 2001) was one of the original members of the SS-Staff Guard (''Stabswache'') "Berlin" formed in March 1933. From those ranks, Mohnke rose to become one of Adolf Hitler's last remaining generals. He joi ...
whose wartime activities were subsequently investigated by the British, Canadian, American and German governments.
He currently acts as
curator
A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...
to the "Ian Sayer Archive", a collection of contemporary World War II documentation, which assists in providing information to institutions, other historians, authors and researchers of the period.
Education and early career
Ian Sayer was born in
Norwich
Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...
,
Norfolk
Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...
, two months after the end of World War II. His father, Leslie, had found it difficult to find work (as a commercial artist) in the 1930s and moved to West
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
to secure employment shortly before the war. Ian and his two older brothers were brought up in
Feltham
Feltham () is a town in West London, England, from Charing Cross. Historically part of Middlesex, it became part of the London Borough of Hounslow in 1965. The parliamentary constituency of Feltham and Heston has been held by Labour Party MPs ...
,
Middlesex
Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...
. He was educated at
Sunbury Grammar School where he obtained General Certificates of Education in English Economic History and English.
During the 1950s he became an avid "spotter" recording the registration marks of everything from
steam locomotive
A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...
s, warships, buses and finally aeroplanes. It was this last interest which led to the 15-year-old Sayer's first commercial venture – the purchase and sale of old aircraft magazines and books.
Entering the
insurance industry
Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...
in the
City of London
The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...
as a junior clerk in 1962 he changed jobs several times before deciding to work closer to home. In 1965 he became a junior export clerk in an
air freight
Air cargo is any property carried or to be carried in an aircraft. Air cargo comprises air freight, air express and airmail.
Aircraft types
Different cargo can be transported by passenger, cargo or combi aircraft:
* Passenger aircraft use the ...
company at
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
's
Heathrow Airport
Heathrow Airport (), called ''London Airport'' until 1966 and now known as London Heathrow , is a major international airport in London, England. It is the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system (the others be ...
.
Transport career
In 1966 he and a partner established a small transport company delivering airfreight to and from
Heathrow Airport
Heathrow Airport (), called ''London Airport'' until 1966 and now known as London Heathrow , is a major international airport in London, England. It is the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system (the others be ...
. The partnership ended in 1967 and the 21-year-old Sayer decided to "go it alone" with one van.
The company expanded and then, in December 1969, as a result of a strike at Heathrow began the first daily, door to door, overnight parcels delivery service between
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
and
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
. This operation, initially competing against air freight services, was to revolutionise
road transport
Road transport or road transportation is a type of transport using roads. Transport on roads can be roughly grouped into the transportation of goods and transportation of people. In many countries licensing requirements and safety regulations e ...
in
Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands
* Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
and
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
. In the ensuing decade the company's activities expanded to encompass overnight services between the whole of mainland Britain and the major offshore islands.
By 1979 the company was one of the most successful transport companies in the United Kingdom. The overnight door to door concept had already been firmly established in the United States (by
FedEx
FedEx Corporation, formerly Federal Express Corporation and later FDX Corporation, is an American multinational conglomerate holding company focused on transportation, e-commerce and business services based in Memphis, Tennessee. The name "Fe ...
) and Australia (by transport conglomerates
TNT
Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...
and
Ipec.
Sayer had already rejected a number of overtures from Sir
Peter Abeles
Sir Peter Emil Herbert Abeles, AC (25 April 192425 June 1999) was an Australian transportation magnate. A refugee from Hungary, he became a businessman in Australia, and was knighted in 1972.
Career
Abeles was born in Vienna, in Austria, but ...
' TNT Group who wished to acquire his company to spearhead their proposed entry into the British and European markets but
Gordon Barton
Gordon Page Barton (30 August 19294 April 2005) was an Australian businessman and political activist.
Biography
He was born in Surabaya, Java, Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) of a Dutch mother and Australian father. He showed his intelligenc ...
's Ipec Group were also interested in penetrating this market and, following an approach from deputy chairman Hugh O’Neill (now 3rd
Baron Rathcavan
Baron Rathcavan, of The Braid in the County of Antrim, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 11 February 1953 for the Unionist politician Sir Hugh O'Neill, 1st Baronet. He had already been created a Baronet, of Cl ...
) and his assistant
Mark Thatcher
Sir Mark Thatcher, 2nd Baronet (born 15 August 1953) is an English businessman. He is the son of Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990, and Sir Denis Thatcher; his sister is Carol Thatcher.
His early career ...
(later seconded as Sayer's personal assistant), in the spring of 1979, he agreed to act as a consultant. This subsequently led to Ipec's simultaneous acquisition of the Sayer Transport Group and
Gelders-Spetra (a Dutch-based European
haulage Haulage is the business of transporting goods by road or rail between suppliers and large consumer outlets, factories, warehouses, or depots. This includes everything humans might wish to move in bulk - from vegetables and other foodstuffs, to cloth ...
company) The combined group was renamed Ipec Europe B V which became the first company to establish an overnight door to door intra-European delivery service.
Although Sayer remained on the board of Ipec's European
holding company
A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...
until its
takeover
In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are listed on a stock exchange, in contrast to t ...
by TNT in 1983 he now had more time to pursue his other interests.
Author
During the 1950s Sayer had developed a considerable interest in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. He had been brought up in an era where there had been a proliferation of films and books concerning the conflict. In addition his awareness of military history had been heightened by the fact that his great grandmother had been awarded a special scroll and £3 (a considerable amount of money in those days) by
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...
to expressly commemorate the fact that his grandmother's six brothers were, in 1900, simultaneously serving under the colours in places as far afield as India and
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
.
In 1974 Sayer had become fascinated by an entry in ''
Guinness World Records
''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
'' (formerly known as ''The Guinness Book of Records'') under the heading 'World's Greatest Robbery'. In 1945 the Nazi regime sent its remaining gold and currency reserves to
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
where it was hidden in the mountains. With the war over, the US military and the US occupation authorities began to try and recover this buried loot. However, a considerable amount of the treasure had, in the meantime, simply disappeared, spirited away by a loose consortium of former Nazi and
SS officers with the assistance of serving US military personnel. Despite a series of high level investigations by US military and civilian agencies much of it was never recovered. Following a U.S. "
Watergate
The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's continual ...
" style cover up in the late 1940s and a subsequent investigation by the German police the case was never solved.
Sayer became so intrigued with the story that, 30 years later, he decided to launch his own private investigation. From 1975 to 1983 he travelled to many countries, conducted hundreds of interviews and also received a series of threats from individuals who had been implicated in the disappearance of the treasure but wished to retain their privacy. One of these threats manifested itself in Sayer being implicated in the 1980 disappearance of
Jeanette May Jeanette, Jeannette or Jeanetta may refer to:
* Jeanette (given name), a given name (including a list of people and fictional characters with the name)
Places
* Jeannette, Ontario, Canada
* Jeannette Island, Russia
* Jeannette, Pennsylvania, U.S ...
the former wife of
Evelyn Robert de Rothschild
Sir Evelyn Robert Adrian de Rothschild (29 August 1931 – 7 November 2022) was a British financier and a member of the Rothschild family.
Early life
Evelyn de Rothschild was born on 29 August 1931. The son of Anthony Gustav de Rothschild (1 ...
in Italy. The bodies of Jeanette May and her friend
Gabriella Guerin were subsequently located in 1982 but although Sayer was able to establish that he had no involvement whatsoever in the case he was interviewed by the Italian police and
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard (officially New Scotland Yard) is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the territorial police force responsible for policing Greater London's 32 boroughs, but not the City of London, the square mile that forms London's ...
on several occasions.
Despite having alerted the
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other n ...
(responsible for the missing bullion) to his findings in 1978 it was to be another five years before they launched an official investigation. It lasted from 1983 to 1996 and culminated in the recovery of 25 kilos of stolen
gold bullion
A gold bar, also called gold bullion or gold ingot, is a quantity of refined metallic gold of any shape that is made by a bar producer meeting standard conditions of manufacture, labeling, and record keeping. Larger gold bars that are produced ...
still bearing full Nazi
hallmark
A hallmark is an official mark or series of marks struck on items made of metal, mostly to certify the content of noble metals—such as platinum, gold, silver and in some nations, palladium. In a more general sense, the term ''hallmark'' can al ...
s. The results of his investigation were published in the 1984 international best seller ''
Nazi Gold
Nazi gold (german: Raubgold, "stolen gold") is gold possessed by Nazi Germany. Much of the focus of the discussion is about how much of this was transferred by Germany to overseas banks during World War II; the ruling Nazi party executed a policy o ...
– the Story of the World’s Greatest Robbery'' (co-author
Douglas Botting
Douglas Scott Botting (22 February 1934 – 6 February 2018) was an English explorer, author, biographer and TV presenter and producer. He wrote biographies of naturalists Gavin Maxwell and Gerald Durrell (the former also being a personal friend ...
with the ''
London Sunday Times
''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...
'').
In December 1997 he was the sole unofficial British observer at the
London Conference on
Nazi gold
Nazi gold (german: Raubgold, "stolen gold") is gold possessed by Nazi Germany. Much of the focus of the discussion is about how much of this was transferred by Germany to overseas banks during World War II; the ruling Nazi party executed a policy o ...
, an international symposium convened in London by the
Foreign & Commonwealth Office
The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) is a department of the Government of the United Kingdom. Equivalent to other countries' ministries of foreign affairs, it was created on 2 September 2020 through the merger of the Foreign ...
and attended by delegates from 42 countries.
Hunting Nazi war criminals
In 1984 Sayer approached
Jeff Rooker
Jeffrey William Rooker, Baron Rooker (born 5 June 1941) is a British politician and life peer who served as a government minister from 1997 to 2008. A member of the Labour Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Perry Barr from ...
, MP for
Perry Barr
Perry Barr is a suburban area in north Birmingham, England. It is also the name of a council constituency, managed by its own district committee. Birmingham Perry Barr is also a parliamentary constituency; its Member of Parliament is Khalid Ma ...
to ask a
Parliamentary Question
A question time in a parliament occurs when members of the parliament ask questions of government ministers (including the prime minister), which they are obliged to answer. It usually occurs daily while parliament is sitting, though it can be ca ...
on when Britain would be releasing several tonnes of looted Nazi gold still held in the
Bank of England
The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government of ...
pending the resolution of a 1946 reparations claim against
Albania
Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...
in respect of the
Corfu Channel Incident
The Corfu Channel Incident consists of three separate events involving Royal Navy ships in the Channel of Corfu which took place in 1946, and it is considered an early episode of the Cold War. . Despite various Parliamentary Questions, an adjournment debate on the issue, and a direct request to the
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
for clarification the matter was not finally resolved until 1996.
In 1988 Sayer was asked by Jeff Rooker to investigate a claim by one of his constituents that a regimental aid fund, established in World War II, was not benefitting the former POWs it had been established to care for. Sayers' subsequent enquiries established that Rooker's constituent had been a survivor of the
Wormhoudt massacre
The Wormhoudt massacre (or Wormhout massacre) was the mass murder of 81 British and French POWs by Waffen-SS soldiers from the 1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler during the Battle of France in May 1940.
Fighting
As part of the Brit ...
, the murder of nearly 90 unarmed British troops in 1940 by members of the Infantry Regiment
Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler
The 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler or SS Division Leibstandarte, abbreviated as LSSAH, (german: 1. SS-Panzerdivision "Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler") began as Adolf Hitler's personal bodyguard unit, responsible for guarding ...
, during the retreat to
Dunkirk
Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label=French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France.[Wilhelm Mohnke
Wilhelm Mohnke (15 March 1911 – 6 August 2001) was one of the original members of the SS-Staff Guard (''Stabswache'') "Berlin" formed in March 1933. From those ranks, Mohnke rose to become one of Adolf Hitler's last remaining generals. He joi ...]
who had been responsible for the defence of the underground bunker complex in which
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
committed suicide. Sayer's subsequent investigation linked Mohnke with other World War II atrocities including the murder of unarmed
Canadian soldier
}
The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF; french: Forces armées canadiennes, ''FAC'') are the unified military forces of Canada, including sea, land, and air elements referred to as the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army, and Royal Canadian Air Force.
...
s taken prisoner during the
Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
invasion and the infamous
Malmedy massacre
The Malmedy massacre was a German war crime committed by soldiers of the on 17 December 1944, at the Baugnez crossroads near the city of Malmedy, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge (16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945). Soldiers of sum ...
of unarmed US prisoners of war during the
Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive, was the last major German offensive (military), offensive military campaign, campaign on the Western Front (World War II), Western Front during World War II. The battle lasted fr ...
.
Sayer had come across Wilhelm Mohnke in the late 1970s whilst conducting research for his book "Nazi Gold", but had been unaware of his alleged involvement in war crimes. Sayer traced Mohnke to his home town of Barsbüttel near
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
and Rooker was able to highlight Mohnke's location and his involvement in the Wormhoudt massacre in the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
on 21 April 1988. This action led to international media interest, which had the effect of keeping Mohnke homebound. Although the British, Canadian and US governments all became involved – German legislation dictated that any investigation should be conducted by Mohnke's local judicial authority. Sayer arranged for Rooker's constituent to initiate a formal complaint, which obliged the reluctant
State Prosecutor in Lubeck to launch an investigation. This investigation lasted for nearly six years with the State Prosecutor concluding that there was insufficient evidence to charge Mohnke. Wilhelm Mohnke was not interviewed at any time during the investigation.
Other activities
In December 1969 he was one of 25 finalists in the ''
London Evening News
The ''London Evening News'' was a newspaper whose first issue was published on 14 August 1855.
Usually, when people mention the ''London Evening News'', they are actually referring to '' The Evening News'', published in London from 1881 to 1980, ...
'' 'Personality of the Year' awards together with
Formula 1
Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...
motor racing champion
Graham Hill
Norman Graham Hill (15 February 1929 – 29 November 1975) was a British racing driver and team owner, who was the Formula One World Champion twice, winning in and as well as being runner up on three occasions (1963, 1964 and 1965). Despite ...
, film star
Ben Lyon
Ben Lyon (February 6, 1901 – March 22, 1979) was an American film actor and a studio executive at 20th Century-Fox who later acted in British radio, films and TV.
Early life and career
Lyon was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the son of Alvine ...
and English test cricketer and later Bishop of Liverpool
David Sheppard
David Stuart Sheppard, Baron Sheppard of Liverpool (6 March 1929 – 5 March 2005) was a Church of England Bishop of Liverpool who played cricket for Sussex and England in his youth. Sheppard remains the only ordained minister to have played T ...
.
In the late 1970s, whilst researching "Nazi Gold" Sayer developed an interest in collecting historical
autographs
An autograph is a person's own handwriting or signature. The word ''autograph'' comes from Ancient Greek (, ''autós'', "self" and , ''gráphō'', "write"), and can mean more specifically:Philip Babcock Gove, Gove, Philip B. (ed.), 1981. ''Webst ...
and manuscripts. Initially his collection was general in nature but over the years he began to specialise in aviation and World War II material. In 1980 he opened Britain's first Autograph Shop, selling framed items, at
Sunningdale
Sunningdale is a large village with a retail area and a civil parish in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. It takes up the extreme south-east corner of Berkshire, England. It has a railway station on the (London) Waterloo to Reading ...
,
Berkshire
Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...
.
In 1983 he was able to assist the ''
Sunday Times
''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...
'', during their publication of the hoax ''
Hitler Diaries
The Hitler Diaries (german: Hitler-Tagebücher) were a series of sixty volumes of journals purportedly written by Adolf Hitler, but forged by Konrad Kujau between 1981 and 1983. The diaries were purchased in 1983 for 9.3 million Deutsche ...
'', by providing information which, although casting increasing doubt over the authenticity of the "Diaries", allowed them to begin the process of retraction.
Sayer remained active in the express parcels industry during the 1980s and 1990s initially acting in a consultative capacity on behalf of companies such as
British Airways
British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a populati ...
,
KLM
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, legally ''Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij N.V.'' (literal translation: Royal Aviation Company Plc.), is the flag carrier airline of the Netherlands. KLM is headquartered in Amstelveen, with its hub at nearby Amste ...
and
DHL Express
DHL is an American founded, German logistics company providing courier, package delivery and express mail service, which is a division of the German logistics firm Deutsche Post. The company group delivers over 1.8 billion parcels per year. DHL ...
. He was DHL's European Consultant between 1984 and 1985 and played a major role in the establishment of its original Brussels Transport Hub and highly successful Intra European parcels delivery system.
In 1985 he was appointed to the board of British parcels carrier
City Link Ltd playing a leading role in updating and modernising the company's activities and facilities. In 1988 he was appointed to the board of government owned
Belfast International Airport
Belfast International Airport is an airport northwest of Belfast in Northern Ireland, is the main airport for the city of Belfast. Until 1983, it was known as ''Aldergrove Airport'', after the nearby village of Aldergrove. In 2018, over 6.2 ...
serving two terms of three years until privatisation in 1994.
On 27 September 1990 he was one of 100 delegates attending an Anti-Terrorist conference at the
Royal Over-Seas League
The Royal Over-Seas League (ROSL) is a not-for-profit members' organisation with international headquarters in its clubhouse in central London, England.
Founded by Sir Evelyn Wrench in 1910 as the Over-Seas Club, it was given a Royal Charter ...
just off St. James's Street in London's
West End, who narrowly escaped death from a bomb which had been placed in the conference room by the
Provisional Irish Republican Army
The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate Irish reun ...
.
In 1988 he founded and published the nationally distributed magazine ''
World War II Investigator'' which he sold the following year.
The Ian Sayer Archive
During the 1990s Sayer continued to build, evaluate and catalogue his 25,000 volume library and World War II document collection. Generally accepted as one of the world's leading experts on Third Reich documentation and signature identification, he now acts as
curator
A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...
of the Ian Sayer Archive, making its contents available to institutions including the
Imperial War Museum
Imperial War Museums (IWM) is a British national museum organisation with branches at five locations in England, three of which are in London. Founded as the Imperial War Museum in 1917, the museum was intended to record the civil and military ...
, other historians, authors and professional researchers of the period. The archive has most recently made a significant contribution to
Andrew Roberts’ book, the bestselling ''The Storm of War: a New History of the Second World War'' (2009), Allen Lane,
Current activities
He is currently a consultant to Europe's leading specialist autograph
auction house
An auction is usually a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from the lowest bidder. Some exceptions to this definition ex ...
, International Autograph Auctions Ltd, the British-based company he helped to establish, with autograph expert Richard Davie, in 2005.
Bibliography
*
Nazi Gold
Nazi gold (german: Raubgold, "stolen gold") is gold possessed by Nazi Germany. Much of the focus of the discussion is about how much of this was transferred by Germany to overseas banks during World War II; the ruling Nazi party executed a policy o ...
: The Story of the World's Greatest Robbery - And Its Aftermath (co-author
Douglas Botting
Douglas Scott Botting (22 February 1934 – 6 February 2018) was an English explorer, author, biographer and TV presenter and producer. He wrote biographies of naturalists Gavin Maxwell and Gerald Durrell (the former also being a personal friend ...
with the
London Sunday Times
''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...
); Granada, 1984;
*America's Secret Army: The Untold Story of the
Counter Intelligence Corps
The Counter Intelligence Corps (Army CIC) was a World War II and early Cold War intelligence agency within the United States Army consisting of highly trained special agents. Its role was taken over by the U.S. Army Intelligence Corps in 1961 and ...
(co-author
Douglas Botting
Douglas Scott Botting (22 February 1934 – 6 February 2018) was an English explorer, author, biographer and TV presenter and producer. He wrote biographies of naturalists Gavin Maxwell and Gerald Durrell (the former also being a personal friend ...
);
Grafton Books
Grafton was a British paperback imprint established 1981 by Granada Publishing Ltd, a subsidiary of media company Granada Group Ltd. It was named after the publishing company's then address, 8 Grafton Street, in central London. Other paperback ...
, 1989;
*Hitler's Last General: The Case Against
Wilhelm Mohnke
Wilhelm Mohnke (15 March 1911 – 6 August 2001) was one of the original members of the SS-Staff Guard (''Stabswache'') "Berlin" formed in March 1933. From those ranks, Mohnke rose to become one of Adolf Hitler's last remaining generals. He joi ...
(co-author
Douglas Botting
Douglas Scott Botting (22 February 1934 – 6 February 2018) was an English explorer, author, biographer and TV presenter and producer. He wrote biographies of naturalists Gavin Maxwell and Gerald Durrell (the former also being a personal friend ...
);
Bantam Books
Bantam Books is an American publishing house owned entirely by parent company Random House, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House; it is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group. It was formed in 1945 by Walter B. Pitkin, Jr., Sidney B. ...
, 1989;
*Hitler's Bastard: Through Hell and Back in
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
and Stalin's Russia (by
Eric Pleasants : Edited by Ian Sayer and
Douglas Botting
Douglas Scott Botting (22 February 1934 – 6 February 2018) was an English explorer, author, biographer and TV presenter and producer. He wrote biographies of naturalists Gavin Maxwell and Gerald Durrell (the former also being a personal friend ...
) :
Mainstream Publishing
Mainstream Publishing was a publishing company in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded in 1978, it ceased trading in December 2013.Charlotte WilliamsMainstream to cease publishing 1 March 2013, The Bookseller.com' (Retrieved 30 December 2016) It was ass ...
, 2003;
*Hitler and Women: The Love Life of
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
(co- author
Douglas Botting
Douglas Scott Botting (22 February 1934 – 6 February 2018) was an English explorer, author, biographer and TV presenter and producer. He wrote biographies of naturalists Gavin Maxwell and Gerald Durrell (the former also being a personal friend ...
) Constable and Robinson, 2004;
*Opinion – The Hunt - Al Jazeera on Line Edition. 5 December 2013
Filmography
Mystery of the Reichsbank Gold - ZDF Enterprises - 2001
Secrets of the Third Reich – Nazi Gold – Flashback Films - 2003 (Screened Channel 4 31 March 2003
Secrets of the Third Reich – Nazi Gold - ZDF Enterprises -2012
References
External links
Nazi Gold Website :
* http://www.nazi-gold.com/
'The Storm of War' and embedded video taken in the Ian Sayer Archive:
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EJZL_WwxK4
Raider of the Lost Archive : Financial Times
* http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/b6759648-7d60-11de-b8ee-00144feabdc0.html
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sayer, Ian
1945 births
Living people
English male journalists
English writers
English historians