Orders, Decorations and Medals

General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Malaya, G.VI.R. (21136070 Rfn. Deobahadur Ale, 6 G.R.) official correction to service number, minor edge bruising, good very fine £140-180

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Richard Schweder Collection of Medals for Campaigns in Malaysia.

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Deobahadur Ale was born in 1927 and enlisted at New Delhi on 1 January 1946. Serving with the 2nd/6th Battalion Queen Elizabeth’s Own Gurkha Rifles, he was mortally wounded on 16 August 1954 and died the next day. In a later letter, the Rifleman’s company commander writes of the circumstances of his death -

‘.... he died on operations in Aid to the Civil Power as a result of a gunshot wound in the head. This took place whilst a reconnaissance was being carried out on a communist terrorist camp in the Selumpur area of the Segamat circle North Johore in what was then Malaya. .... The CT opened fire on the main party which was preparing to attack the camp and Deobahadur was wounded. As it was late afternoon it was not possible to helicopter him out that night. Unfortunately he died during the night of 16th/17th August. The body was evacuated by helicopter to the BMH Kluang on the 17th August pending burial, which as you know took place in the Kluang Gurkha Cemetery, Johore. ...’

Sold with copied service papers and letter from the Record Office Brigade of Gurkhas.