South Atlantic 1982, with rosette (24603983 Gdsm, SG) nearly extremely fine £1800-2200

Frank S. Gilchrist served with 9 Platoon, ‘G’ Company, 2nd Battalion, Scots Guards during the Battle for Mount Tumbledown on the night of 13/14 June 1982. He was wounded in the leg by mortar fire during the initial phase of the battle. Sold with two copies of published interviews with Frank Gilchrist, which give detail of his time on the Falklands and his subsequent problems with heroin addiction as a result of a morphine addiction brought about in hospital whilst being treated for his leg wound. As a result he was dismissed from the army and began a life centred around drug abuse and vagrancy resulting in his arrest and an eighteen month prison sentence, being diagnosed with HIV as a legacy of his drug addiction. However, in 1989 he became an AIDS campaigner and subject of a play on his life ‘Just Frank’ and latterly a playwright.

The following is extracted from one of the published interviews included with the lot:

‘Frank’s engagement in the war ended at Tumbledown on 14 June. “We had come round a bend when our drill sergeant got shot through the head and I ran across to help him. Then I got caught by mortar fire. I can remember lying there completely numb and seeing men running past me.”