the Bomber Command Memorial in London's Green Park, and his contribution is recognised on each side of the memorial. Victoria Crosses Ashcroft collects Victoria Crosses which are awarded for valour and devotion to duty to members of various armed forces. His collection is by far the largest in the world spanning 128 years from acts of valour at the start of the Crimean War in 1854 to an act of courage during the Falklands War in 1982. He wrote Victoria Cross Heroes to mark the 150th anniversary of the Victoria Cross. Following the theft of a number of Victoria Crosses awarded to New Zealand servicemen from the Army Museum at Waiouru in late 2007, Ashcroft pledged NZ$200,000 for their return. Those stolen included the VC & Bar of Charles Upham. The medals were recovered three months later and at a presentation in Wellington on 15 April 2008 he pledged a further NZ$200,000 for information leading to the conviction of those responsible for the thefts. In July 2008, Ashcroft announced a donation of £5 million for a permanent gallery at the Imperial War Museum, where the fifty Victoria Crosses held by the museum are now on display alongside his own collection of more than 200 VCs (and a smaller collection of George Crosses). Controversy Tax status Ashcroft has been described as a "tax exile", and for a number of years lived in the UK enjoying the controversial non-domiciled tax status. At the time of his ennoblement the Cabinet Office said that Ashcroft would be taking up permanent residence in the UK for tax purposes, an undertaking described in the newspapers as a "pledge" and a "gentleman's agreement", but he did not in fact claim to do so until a decade later, when a change in the law would have required him to quit the Lords, had he not done so. Then in 2017 it was revealed following the Paradise Papers leak of offshore investment documents that Lord Ashcroft remained a domicile of Belize despite having claimed to have given up his non-dom tax status in 2010. U.S. DEA leak In 1999, Ashcroft was first nominated by Conservative Party leader and friend William Hague for the Lords. During their investigation, the House of Lords Appointments Commission was fed via the media with certain information, which originated from Jonathan Randel, an intelligence research specialist for the United States Drug Enforcement Administration. Randel leaked