WWI VC and medals sell for record price

A British man has bought his great-uncle's Victoria Cross and other WWI medals for the world record price of PS840,000 ($A1.4m).

Baron Lorne Thyssen-Bornemisza paid the eye-watering price for the collection at auction 100 years after the VC was awarded to Vice Admiral Gordon Campbell.

Campbell was captain of the "Q-Ship" Farnborough and successfully destroyed a German submarine U.83 on February 17, 1917.

His complete group of 11 medals also included the DSO with two bars and France's prestigious Legion d'Honneur Chevalier's badge, and Croix de Guerre, 1914-1918.

The collection set a world auction record for a VC and any group of British medals.

Thyssen-Bornemisza said the medals would be displayed in a British museum "as an example to generations to come".

"Gordon Campbell was an old-fashioned hero who was recognised for conspicuous gallantry, consummate coolness, and skill in his command of 'Q' Mystery Ships, decoys for German U boats," he said.

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