Five: Captain R. V. G. Elwes, King’s Royal Rifle Corps, captured by the Yugoslavs on the ‘Morgan Line’ in early 1947

1939-45 Star; France and Germany Star; Defence and War Medals, unnamed; General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Palestine 1945-48 (Capt., K.R.R.C.) last with some contact marks, very fine and better (5) £160-200

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals to the 60th Rifles and King’s Royal Rifle Corps.

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Robin Valentine Gervase Elwes was born on 14 August 1922 and was educated at Ampleforth. He received an emergency commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the K.R.R.C. in April 1942 and was later posted to the 8th Battalion. In August 1944 he saw service with the 2nd Battalion in North-West Europe and a year later he was posted to the 10th Battalion. In the Autumn of 1945 he returned home and joined the 27th holding battalion at Ogbourne St. George, Wiltshire. In January 1947, he joined the 1st Battalion C.M.F., and saw service on the Morgan Line. The line was the unofficial boundary between Italy and Yugoslavia, running north from Trieste. Manned by British troops southwards from the River Vipava, the 1st Battalion K.R.R.C. held a position in the north of the sector, taking position shortly after Christmas 1946. In early 1947, Lieutenant Elwes and a Rifleman Gormley were captured by communist Yugoslav troops whilst investigating a telephone line that crossed the boundary. They were initially bound, roughed-up, interrogated before being cast into the local jail. After three days they were marched out into the deserted countryside and after fearing they might be summarily shot, were at length driven to Ljubljiana in Slovenia where their treatment improved. After three weeks and further interrogation they were returned to the Morgan Line and released into the American sector. This was a time of high tension, added to by political differences, when it was thought the Yugoslavs might forcibly seize adjacent Italian land.

In May 1947 Elwes received a regular commission in the rank of Lieutenant. In September he was appointed Staff Captain “Q” H.Q., 86 Area C.M.F. At the end of the year he returned home and joined the Green Jackets Brigade Training Centre at Barton Stacey near Winchester. In February 1948 he returned to the 2nd Battalion M.E.L.F. and in August he returned home to the Rifle Depot. He was promoted to Captain in August 1949. He joined the 1st Battalion B.A.O.R. in June 1951, and in 1952 was appointed to serve on the staff of H.Q. 7th Armoured Division, B.A.O.R. His private life was also not without incident. In 1949 his yacht, the 4 ton sloop Kestrel, ran aground in a gale on sand banks off Dunkirk. He and his wife were fortunate to be able to get ashore to safety.

Captain Elwes died at the early age of 36 on 10 January 1959. Sold with copied research and photographs, including an article entitled The Morgan Line, 1947, by Major M. P. Lee.