Herbert “Bert” Murch

Poulin Firearms & Militaria Auctioneer is tremendously proud to bring to auction the 50 year collection of Herbert “Bert” Murch.

Bert Murch with his first Confederate carbine “Columbus Armory” pictured with pioneer collector Fred Slaton at their carbine display in 1970 (*this Columbus Armory Carbine will be offered in the upcoming auction)

Bert joined the Army after college, ending his service at Ft. McClellan, AL, working for Col. Stephens, a direct descendant of the Vice President of the Confederacy. His interest in Civil War history began to grow at this time.

The job he had waiting for him at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, AL, was both exciting and challenging to Bert and he was heavily involved in the development of Infrared Countermeasures for missile systems. This included improvements to the Redeye and Stinger missile systems and the ALE-47 missile warning system, which was the U.S. military’s primary chaff, flares, and Radio Frequency (RF) decoys dispensing system, using state-of-the-art processing technology to perform automatic threat-adaptive dispensing of these expendable countermeasures. The ALE-47 is the countermeasure dispensing system on 38 different platforms for many nations around the world. Most of Bert’s career was spent in the IR Missile and Infrared countermeasure field.

In 1962 he married his wife, Ann and in1965, while in London on a European vacation, Bert purchased several dueling pistols. That was the beginning of his “love affair” with collecting antique guns. Bert loves history and in fact, received a Minor in History with a Major in Physics from William Jewell College, Liberty, MO. After their European trip, Bert began to acquire Civil War carbines. Bert explains “I’ve spent many happy, productive hours in various state and national archives researching their history. Over the years, Ann and I have attended many Civil War shows with educational displays of my collection, so that others might learn from them”.