Eight: Lieutenant-Colonel G. E. C. Ash, Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, who was mentioned in despatches for his command of the 1st Battalion, Malay Regiment during the Emergency

1939-45 Star; Burma Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Malaya, G.VI.R., M.I.D. oak leaf (Maj. G. E. C. Ash, A. & S.H.); Korea 1950-53 (Major G. E. C. Ash, A. & S.H.); U.N. Korea 1950-54; Coronation 1953, mounted as worn, generally good very fine (8) £600-800

Mention in despatches London Gazette 5 April 1949:

‘For distinguished services in the Field in Malaya.’

George Ernest Claudius Ash, the son of Captain & Mrs. Ash of Bedford, was born on 8 October 1913. Educated at Wellington School, Somerset, he was domiciled in the Federated Malay States in the period leading up to the Second World War, being employed variously from 1935 as a school-master in Singapore and latterly as an motor engineer and then accountant with Borneo Motors of Seremban (Negeri Sembilan); on 26 May 1939, he married Bertha Marie Scheiss, a Swiss national, in Singapore Colony.

In November 1939, Ash was granted a temporary commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 3rd Battalion, Federated Malay States Volunteer Force (The Straits Times of 5 November, 1939, refers), but in May 1940 he enlisted in the British Army. Subsequently commissioned into the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders on 30 November 1940, he served on attachment with the Northumberland Fusiliers in the U.K. from December 1941 until 1944, when he was embarked for India and saw active service during the Burma campaign.

Ash moved to Malaya in 1946, where he served on attachment, in command of 1st Battalion, Malay Regiment until 1948, winning a “mention” for his services in the Emergency. Then in 1950, he joined the 1st Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in Hong Kong, and subsequently served with the Battalion in Korea during the Korean War, commanding the Headquarters Company. Further overseas service with the Argylls took Ash to British Guiana in 1954, following which he became an instructor at the Support Weapons Wing at Netheravon. His final posting was to the War Office Selection Board, and he was placed on the Retired List in 1961. Granted the honorary rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, Ash died at Newbury, Berkshire, in 1992.