Benito Mussolini Passport 1922

Benito Mussolini Passport

His old passport was offered in 1922 for a sale price of £500. Interesting press photo…see full description on the pictures below…

Thanks to the input from Jonathan Pile (see comments), I can add the following fascinating facts.

…Montgomery Hyde, in his observations on Maundy Gregory’s trial in 1933, noted that “Among the curiosities of his collection were an early passport belonging to Mussolini, whom he greatly admired.”

…one of Maundy Gregory’s most  Prized Trophies belonged to Mussolini. One item Gregory had in his possession in the 1930s was a passport issued to Benito Mussolini in Milan in 1921, nine months before the march on Rome – a curious item to be in possession of London Honours Tout unless it was a gift or trophy from some espionage. Interestingly, the passport described Mussolini as a journalist and entitled the bearer to travel anywhere except  Russia and Fiume. Benito Mussolini Passport

…Fleming buys Mussolini’s passport, John Beckett & William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw). One item Gregory had in his possession in the 1930s was a passport issued to Benito Mussolini in Milan in 1921, nine months before the march on Rome – a curious item to be in possession of London Honours Tout unless it was a gift or trophy from some espionage. Interestingly enough, the passport, which described Mussolini as a journalist and entitled the bearer to travel anywhere except Russia and Fiume, was given by Gregory to Symons, who sold it at auction in March 1937 to a young officer in Naval Intelligence by the Name of Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond. It was sold in May 1972, in the particular silk-lined morocco case Fleming had made for it to a private buyer for £1,200  – four times the expected auctioneer’s price. Benito Mussolini Passport

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