Pair: Private F. G. Simpson, Gloucestershire Regiment, late Queen’s Royal West Surrey Regiment, who was taken Prisoner of War at El Alamein during the Second World War on 25 October 1942; and was subsequently captured again at the Battle of Imjin River during the Korean War in April 1951

Korea 1950-53, 1st issue (6087709 Pte. F. G. Simpson. Glosters.); U.N. Korea 1950-54, unnamed as issued; together with the recipient’s Gloucestershire Regiment back badge, extremely fine (2) £800-£1,000

Provenance: Sotheby’s, November 2000.

Frederick George Simpson was born in Peckham, London, on 10 May 1920, and enlisted in the Queen’s Royal West Surrey Regiment (Territorial Army) in July 1937. Discharged on 24 January 1938, he re-enlisted in the same Regiment on 4 April 1939, and served during the Second World War in the 1st/6th Battalion, as part of 131st Brigade, 44th Division, arriving in North Africa via the Cape in May 1942. On the night of 24-25 October, during Operation Braganza, part of the El Alamein offensive, Sappers and two Battalions of the Royal West Surrey Regiment carried out a night breach of ‘February’ minefield under cover of a heavy barrage. Owing to a difference of opinion in map reading, the Sappers and the Queens followed different assault directions, which resulted in the formation of strong pockets of enemy resistance. These were rapidly reinforced, bringing about further heavy casualties to the two Royal West Surrey Battalions, which were not relieved until after dark on the evening of 25 October. The Regiment suffered 172 casualties in October, most of them at El Alamein, and Simpson was amongst those captured and taken Prisoner of War on 25 October 1942.

Simpson was initially held at Campo 70, located at Monturano, near Fermo. Following the Italian surrender he was initially moved to Stalg 4B at Mulberg in the Sudentenland (today known as Lesik in the Czech Republic) in October 1943, and then to Stalag 4C at Brux in Bohemia in January 1944, where he was employed as a brickworks labourer at the Sudentenlandishe Treibstoffe Werke factory, a coal hydrogenation facility known as the ‘Herman Goring Works’ that was the subject of numerous R.A.F. bombing raids. Whilst there, Simpson took part in the destruction by hammer of the control mechanism of two railway engines, both of which remained out of use for the rest of the War. Repatriated at the end of the War, having completed his M.I.9 Intelligence Questionnaire on 15 May 1945, he was subsequently transferred to the Hampshire Regiment prior to his discharge.

Recalled from the Reserve following the outbreak of the Korean War, Simpson was posted to the Gloucestershire Regiment, and served with the 1st Battalion in Korea. He was captured and taken Prisoner of War at the Battle of Imjin River in April 1951, and held at Camp One. Whilst in captivity he was imprisoned alone in a hut without bedding whilst snow lay on the ground as a punishment for digging up some potatoes in an attempt to supplement the meagre rice diet. Damage to the ‘People’s Crops’ was one of the most serious charges a prisoner could face- even the mere act of walking (let alone running) through a field of grain was a crime. Simpson was finally released along with 56 other prisoners on 13 August 1953, and returned home in the Asturias in September of that year. He died in London on 12 November 2010.

Sold with copied research, including M.I.9 Questionnaire; correspondence regarding his release as a P.O.W. in 1953; and copied Marriage Certificate.