John Tunstill started collecting lead soldiers some sixty years ago as a small child, living in London during the Second World War. By the age of nine, John was casting lead figures on his mother’s kitchen gas stove in aluminium moulds!

He also bought figures through adverts in the Exchange and Mart magazine; painting and selling them at school and through local friendly shopkeepers started him off in the business. Later John opened the shop, Soldiers, in Lambeth, London, near the Imperial War Museum and wrote “Discovering Wargames”.

He organised the first accessible scale toy soldier auctions at the local pub, the Hercules Tavern, with bidding for single sets instead of hundreds of figures in a lot, as were sold in the well established auction houses.

The shop ran for some fifteen years, until about 1985, and during that time the range of Soldiers’ Soldiers was launched, quickly achieving world-wide acceptance. John and his staff made and sold some 500 figures a week for about ten years!

Since 1983 John has been engaged in buying, selling and restoring medieval country properties in Umbria (please visit www.propertiesumbria.com for more information) and laterly, rebuilding and renovating a small 12th Century monastery, La Preghiera, which houses the soldier museum, enabling this large collection to be shared with visitors from all over the world.
Maximum parties of 20 enthusiasts by appointment only please! Entrance to the soldier museum is free!