Four: Sergeant A. Neil, Royal Artillery, who served in 132 (Bengal Rocket Troop) Battery in the Falklands

General Service 1962, 1 clasp, Northern Ireland (24232269 Gnr., R.A.), initial given as ‘D.’; South Atlantic 1982, with rosette (24232269 L. Bdr., R.A.); Army L.S. & G.C., E.II.R., Regular Army (24232269, Sgt., R.A.); Jubilee 2002, in its Royal Mint box of issue, mounted as worn, good very fine and rare (4) £800-1000

Anthony Neil, who was born in Cardiff in December 1955, enlisted in the Royal Artillery in May 1971. Having then qualified as a Regimental Signaller, he served three tours in Northern Ireland (December 1973 to February 1974, February to April 1976 and November 1980 to March 1981), following which he passed the basic course for Observation Post Assistant, a timely qualification in light of looming events in the South Atlantic.

For, in May 1982, he was one of 16 members of 132 (Bengal Rocket Troop) Battery, R.A., under Major Mike Fallon, selected for service in a Forward Observation role, in support of 1/7 Gurkha Rifles. Among the first elements of 5 Infantry Brigade to be disembarked, Neil and his fellow gunners advanced to Bluff Cove via Goose Green, and provided valuable support in the attacks on Mounts Tumbledown and Harriet, as well as controlling naval gunfire and Harrier air strikes. In the course of the Tumbledown operation, the Gunners and Gurkhas walked into an enemy fire zone, two Bombardiers being wounded by shrapnel and an officer being shot by a sniper - the unit’s history crediting Neil with working alongside his Battery C.O. to establish the true direction of the enemy’s artillery fire and, thereafter, moving forward to join Captain G. M. Pugh, to replace one of the wounded Bombardiers: it was clearly a nasty moment, two “blind” rounds coming within 20 metres of the Gurkhas’ C.O. and the Battery Commander’s group.

Having returned from the Falklands in mid-July 1982, and been presented with his South Atlantic Medal in a special parade at Larkhill, by Lieutenant-General Sir Ted Burgess, K.C.B., O.B.E., Commander United Kingdom Field Army, that December, Neil passed an Internal Security Course in April 1987 and the Joint Services Downhill Skiing Course in January 1988, prior to being discharged as a Sergeant in June 1992.

Sold with the recipient’s original Regular Army Certificate of Service and British Army Identity Card, the latter dated 28 April 1986, a portrait photograph, and a copy of The Story of 132 Battery Royal Artillery (The Bengal Rocket Troop) during the Falklands Campaign, 1982, in which the recipient is mentioned - and pictured in the M.V. Monsuner off Bluff Cove.