Hey Erwin,
It's always interesting to research id'ed items, i hope you will find out more about this veteran!
About donating to museum's, well i heard stories...
For instance, a private collector who is telling veterans he owns a museum, via that way he is trying to get the items from veterans for free!
In my opinion it's just not done to ask a veteran if you can have his items, not even when you are from a museum. Those items have a lot of emotional value to them, and they deside what they are going to do with those items. I do find it interesting to find out more about their items, such as the Engineers helmet i noticed on photos that Marion posted! That helmet got a cricket on one of it's straps, then it's just interesting to ask for more information about that, i haven't seen it yet on period photographs.
Be carefull with donating items, good luck with your research 
Regards Daan