The Manchester man with a 'war room' in his house

An amateur historian who found World War Two helmets in derelict air raid shelters of demolished homes in Manchester as a boy has now amassed a huge £50,000 collection of military memorabilia – in his dining room.

Ray Fricker has collected roughly 900 pieces from the First and Second World Wars that now cover the room's walls and floor. The 67-year-old has created a dedicated ‘war room’ in his three-bed Manchester family home with machine guns, gas masks, carvings from POW camps and letters from soldiers.

Ray said despite the collection’s impressive value, his motivation has always been to look after the artefacts for future generations.

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He said: “I don’t buy to make a profit – I buy to save. I’ve got letters, I’ve got diaries, and I’ve got stuff from prisoner of war camps, where people have made stuff.

“And I’ve got a shell that landed on the British side in World War One when they were battling. It went straight down into the dugouts, and it never went off.

“I love the chase, and once the chase is over, the piece goes in the war room – and it’s saved there. It’s just something you’ve got to do...but sometimes it can take a long time.”

Ray, who works part-time at a VW dealership, said his memorabilia collection began in 2010 after he purchased a tin hat, which he planned to turn into a clock.

But after inspecting the World War Two British protective gear, he realised it needed to be conserved – and he started buying up more vintage pieces.

He said: “I had one hat, so I put it in the war room. Then the next minute I had another one, and then another one. And my wife said, ‘I hope you’re not going to buy any more of these’.

“Before you knew it, I’d started collecting after getting the bug from when I was a kid.”

The roughly 13ft long by 9ft wide room in his home is now lined with items from countries such as Germany, Russia, France, Britain and the USA.

Ray has shrapnel-battered German helmets worn during D-Day, along with disarmed grenades, a minesweeping device and a 1940s-era radio. He also has an original World War Two deactivated German MG 42 machine gun, a replica German mortar, which fires blanks, and a British Enfield rifle worth £600.

Ray further has a deactivated Russian Maxim machine gun, which was imported from the country, and is now valued at around £3,000.

But one of his most priceless items is a model of a wooden tank carved by World War Two soldier James Pardoe while interned at Stalag XX-A POW camp in Toruń, German-occupied Poland.

The infantryman from Scarborough, who served in the Prince of Wales's Own Regiment of Yorkshire, was in his 40s when he chiselled the sculpture inside the detention centre.

Ray said: “The barrel never got finished on the tank, probably because anything long and thin could be used as a weapon.

“But I’ve managed to save this piece of history – which is a piece of him. Imagine trying to find some bits of wood. It could have taken him months.

“That’s close to me because I can feel the history and I know the person who made it, and it’s that and what it’s been through – and how he had to hide it. That’s priceless to me.”

Ray said he collects the pieces by visiting antique shops while travelling around the UK, but also has friends scouting items for him in France and other parts of Europe. And he is also prepared to display controversial German memorabilia, including a reproduction Nazi flag bearing a Swastika.

He added: “I always explain, I don’t support this stuff at all – it’s there. It’s part of World War Two. It needs to be shown.

"So the swastika goes with all the German side, which is the MG 42 machine gun, the First World War helmets and Second World War helmets.”

Ray said he had no desire to sell the private collection and expected it to one day be donated to a public museum.

He said: “I’m just a caretaker hanging onto this until the next guy pops over and takes it all. I wouldn’t ever want to sell it. I would imagine it would all go to a museum.

But he added about the estimated value of the hoard: "It's not far short of £50,000.”