Orders, Decorations and Medals

General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Malaya, E.II.R. (2/Lt. R. O. M. C. Slade, Som. L.I.) minor edge bruise, 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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Robert Orlando Michael Cuthbert Slade was born in 1936 and educated at Malvern College. He gained a National Service Commission on 7 May 1955 and was transferred to the Army Emergency Reserve on 10 October 1956, being promoted to a Lieutenant in the A.E.R. in January 1957. He served throughout with the Somerset Light Infantry. He served in Malaya in 1955 as a platoon commander in “C” Company of the 1st Battalion. Slade was in action on 24 August 1955 when he was OC 8 Platoon and led one of three ambush parties which resulted in four CTs (Communist Terrorists) being ambushed, with one, a leading member of the local CT unit, killed.

Robert Slade died at his home at Instow, North Devon, on 10 March 1958, aged 22 years. His obituary stated, ‘.... He will be always be remembered by his brother officers and by the men in his platoon for his unsuppressable high spirits and vivacity. ... He loved speed, excitement, and anything that savoured of the unconventional. He hated hum-drum routine, pomposity and pretentiousness. He had no physical fear and his high spirits often amounted to extreme recklessness ...’ Sold with some copied service details.