The superb ‘Iraq 2004’ Conspicuous Gallantry Cross group of nine awarded to Warrant Officer Class 1 Terrence ‘Tommo’ Thomson, 1st Battalion, Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment, whose extraordinary bravery and powers of initiative came to the fore whilst commanding his Warrior vehicle as part of a Quick Reaction Force extraction in central Basra City, 9 August 2004. Answering the call to a succession of escalating insurgent ambushes, Thomson and his crew found themselves isolated and under constant heavy RPG and machine gun fire as they tried to locate and extract a small group of Artillery men, who were themselves surrounded by hundreds of armed local militia.

Thomson’s Warrior was hit by an RPG from close range early during the contact, and as such the communications system failed. The only means of communication available to Thomson were hand-signals which meant continuously exposing himself to direct fire from the militia whilst engaging the enemy, fighting his vehicle, and communicating with another Warrior vehicle in the immediate area. Believing the stranded soldiers to be ‘holed-up’ in the Old Ba’ath Party Headquarters - a complex within a perimeter with minimal entrances and exits and dominated by high buildings - he ‘focused only on rescuing the stranded soldiers, and now acting as a single vehicle, Corporal Thomson manoeuvred and fought his way into the compound, continually being engaged by small arms and RPG fire. He saw that there were enemy positions within the compound, some of whom were engaging his vehicle. His turret jammed, restricting his ability to return fire. With no thought for his own safety, and realising he was the only person able to fight back whilst his gunner rectified the turret problem, he stood fully exposed to the enemy, engaging individual gunmen with his personal weapon. On realising the stranded troops were not within the compound, he had to exit the compound close to an enemy position within a fortified sangar. As the vehicle approached the position Corporal Thomson fired his personal weapon into it and posted two grenades, destroying the position and the three gunmen within, thus guaranteeing his exit from the compound.

At this point in the battle the stranded soldiers had been rescued by another Warrior. Corporal Thomson married up his vehicle with the platoon commander and was able to extract, fighting his way out of the killing area, still using hand-signals and fighting as an individual from his turret.’

Conspicuous Gallantry Cross, E.II.R., reverse officially inscribed ‘25046691 Cpl T A Thomson PWRR’, reverse lower arm officially dated ‘2005’; General Service 1962-2007, 1 clasp, Northern Ireland (25046691 Pte T A Thomson PWRR); N.A.T.O. Medal 1994, 1 clasp, Kosovo; Iraq 2003-11, no clasp (25046691 Cpl T A Thomson CGC PWRR); Operational Service Medal 2000, for Afghanistan, 1 clasp, Afghanistan (WO2 T A Thomson CGC PWRR 25046691); Jubilee 2002; Jubilee 2012; Accumulated Campaign Service Medal 2011 (WO2 T A Thomson CGC PWRR 25046691); Army L.S. & G.C., E.II.R., 2nd issue, Regular Army (WO2 T A Thomson CGC PWRR 25046691) mounted as originally worn, generally very fine (9) £100,000-£120,000

The Conspicuous Gallantry Cross was instituted as a result of the 1993 review of the British honours system and is second in seniority only to the Victoria Cross. Thomson’s C.G.C. is one of only 15 awarded for Iraq.

C.G.C. London Gazette 18 March 2005, the original recommendation states:

‘Corporal Thomson. Basra City, Iraq. 9th August 2004. Warrior AFV Commander.

On 9th August 2004 Cpl Thomson was commanding a Warrior AFV in central Basra City as part of a company action to rescue eight stranded soldiers who were cut-off, their vehicles destroyed, and running low on ammunition, being engaged by enemy militia. The Company had been tasked to rescue these soldiers; an action during which a soldier from the company was killed and the company commander’s entire Tactical Headquarters Group was injured.

On deployment to the stranded soldiers Cpl Thomson’s Warrior was attacked and struck by RPG and small arms fire from close range. The RPG strike caused internal and external communications failure which did not deter Cpl Thomson’s focus in engaging the enemy and providing flank protection for other vehicles to attempt to rescue the cut-off soldiers. The only means of communication available to Cpl Thomson were hand-signals which meant continuously exposing himself to direct fire from the militia whilst engaging the enemy, fighting his vehicle, and communicating with another Warrior vehicle in the immediate area. Having defeated the RPG and small arms teams, and still using only hand signals, Cpl Thomson lead the two vehicles to an area to provide flank support to other call signs attempting to rescue the stranded soldiers. Whilst still under small arms fire he regained communications via a control station and relayed the enfolding situation. He was informed that the stranded soldiers were suspected of being in the area of the Old Ba’ath Party Headquarters, a complex within a perimeter with minimal entrances and exits and dominated by high buildings. Focused only on rescuing the stranded soldiers, and now acting as a single vehicle, Cpl Thomson manoeuvred and fought his way into the compound, continually being engaged by small arms and RPG fire. He saw that there were enemy positions within the compound, some of whom were engaging his vehicle. His turret jammed, restricting his ability to return fire. With no thought for his own safety, and realising he was the only person able to fight back whilst his gunner rectified the turret problem, he stood fully exposed to the enemy, engaging individual gunmen with his personal weapon. On realising the stranded troops were not within the compound, he had to exit the compound close to an enemy position within a fortified sangar. As the vehicle approached the position Cpl Thomson fired his personal weapon into it and posted two grenades, destroying the position and the three gunmen within, thus guaranteeing his exit from the compound.

At this point in the battle the stranded soldiers had been rescued by another Warrior. Cpl Thomson married up his vehicle with the platoon commander and was able to extract, fighting his way out of the killing area, still using hand-signals and fighting as an individual from his turret.

Cpl Thomson exemplary personal bravery, razor sharp initiative, and dynamic action whilst under continuous small arms and RPG fire for a period in excess of two hours in an urban environment were absolutely superb, especially as he was largely unsupported for a great deal of the engagement. His actions were an inspiration to his men and the remainder of the company over what was an especially difficult period and are worthy of the highest possible recognition.’

Terrence Thomson was born in Rustington, near Littlehampton, West Sussex, and joined the Army aged 18 in 1995:

‘I haven't looked back since. I had a good time in training, and came away from training with 'Best in PT’ in both phases. Relatively quickly after joining the battalion [1st Battalion, Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment] I was a lance jack, and very soon after that I was a full screw, one of the youngest in the battalion. I managed to get my wings up (parachute training) with 5 Airborne, did a tour of Ireland, a tour of Kosovo and went to a depot as a section commander teaching new recruits, which was good for me. It's all been good.’ (In Foreign Fields, Heroes of Iraq & Afghanistan in their own words, by D. Collins refers)

Thomson was deployed with B Company, 1st Battalion, Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment to Iraq in April 2004 - TELIC 4:

‘B Company, we were down in Basra, whereas the rest of the battle group went up to Al Amarah [during which tour two other members of the Regiment were decorated for their gallantry - Johnson Beharry was awarded the Victoria Cross, and Chris Broome was awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross]. For the first month, it was just like a normal operational tour. Quite quiet, the odd shooting, the odd RPG attack, the odd mortaring, but nothing too bad. Meanwhile, we were getting all the reports about the Battle Group up north getting quite a lot of serious injuries and big contacts and obviously, us as a company stuck down south, we wanted to get up there to support our mates....

Of course, eventually it all came down to us anyway. The first serious attack was when Cpl Si Gower, now a sergeant, got ambushed in his Warrior and suffered shrapnel to the face and underneath his arm. That was the start of the Shia uprising in our area, and then it all started to kick off. After that, more or less every time we went out we got ambushed with small arms and RPGs. I later served on TELIC 8, so I've got a bit of perspective about the way things have changed. By TELIC 8, they were much more organised and tactically aware; they had a rank structure and a chain of command. On TELIC 4, the enemy were more sporadic and disorganised. A group of guys would grab a few RPGs and a load of ammo, sit at the side of the road and whack you when you came by - not worrying that their mate was on the other side of the road and would end up being killed in the crossfire. That did happen, if they weren't killed by us. That's not to say they were ineffective - they were often committed and dangerous opponents. We'd go out on escort runs or patrols and we'd just get malleted, especially on the Red Route or on the Yellow Route past the top end of the Shia Flats.

I remember one occasion, the Red Route was out of bounds because we'd been hit on it so often, so there was a convoy down past the Shia Flats. The lead two vehicles got ambushed, stopped to return fire and then the first, a Warrior commanded by Cpl Dax Pett, got a mechanical fault and was stuck. So we had to go down to extract them. Meanwhile, the militia had sussed what was going on and took the opportunity to whack us again when we arrived. We took a massive barrage of RPGs from all over, and a lot of small arms. Myself and Dax jumped out and hitched the broken down vehicle to my Warrior, all the while with this stuff going on, and dragged it out backwards while the other Warrior, commanded by Cpl Dan Davies, gave us covering fire. That was just one of the incidents, and there were lots of similar ones.’ (Ibid)

Extraction - Time to Rescue the Rescuers

The above was to provide good experience of what was to come for Thomson on 9 August 2004. During the course of the day a patrol of eight soldiers in soft-skin Land Rovers had been forced by an ever increasing hostile crowd of locals to hole up in a small camp in Basra. Four extraction vehicles were designated for the task of rescuing the patrol from the escalating situation. Amongst those along for the ride in the armoured Land Rovers was Sergeant Terry Bryan, Royal Horse Artillery, who was to be later awarded the C.G.C. for his gallantry that day.

All four vehicles were ambushed by hundreds of armed assailants, with Bryan’s pair of vehicles forcing their way through to the former Ba’ath Party HQ. Still taking RPG and heavy machine gun fire, Bryan decided to ‘debus’ and lead his men out on foot, by a fighting withdrawal. Not long after the nine men under Bryan were forced to hole-up and take a defensive position in a house next door to the former headquarters. They were once again surrounded, and hammered by RPG and machine gun fire. However, despite the ever worsening situation, a call was got through to request a Quick Reaction Force to rescue them.

Thomson commanded one of the Warriors designated for the Quick Reaction Force:

‘We were on 15 minutes' notice to move. There wasn't a great deal of information about where we were going or why - it was a case of getting the vehicles up and running and get them out of the gate. The 1st Bn Cheshires were already out and had put a cordon in place but were standing off - they had been pinned down by small arms when making the initial attempt to extract them, and because they were in Snatch wagons and Saxons the risk of them going in was too great. There were enemy and militia all over the place and anything that went down to where the Artillery guys were was getting hit. If their vehicles were hit with RPGs.. ... well, it would have been carnage.

My multiple of two Warriors was told to RV with the Cheshires just down from Yellow 7, one of the main junctions on the Red Route before you turned south, so they could brief us. My boss, Capt Ian Pennells, got a face-to-face with one of the Cheshire multiple commanders and told me we were going to push further down the Red Route towards the former Ba'ath Party HQ, which was somewhere near where the lads were supposed to be. We'd get more updates on the way down. Obviously, we knew we were going to be hit as soon as we started moving, so that does get the adrenaline going. The Warrior is a great vehicle, but it won't stop everything, and we all knew we could be in a lot of trouble.

So we started down the road, myself on the right and my boss on the left and slightly in front of me. Straight away, he got opened up on by RPGs from a building covered in what looked like wooden scaffolding. I was out of my Warrior, head and shoulders exposed. I saw the initiation of the RPGs, saw two or three of them strike his Warrior and immediately we lost comms. His vehicle just disappeared in a cloud of smoke. I just thought, 'F***, what's happened to him?'

His call sign was 20 and I was 21. I started radioing him, 'Hello, 20 this is 21, send sitrep, over.'

Nothing. No casualty reports, no damage report, just silence. While I’m trying to get him on the net, we get hit ourselves on the right hand side, by a bloke firing from 60 metres down an alleyway. When an RPG hits, you feel the bang against the armour and the noise is unbelievable - it almost stuns you for a second. But you soon react and we started traversing the turret to engage the guy, so he just dropped his RPG and legged it. Having said that, both our vehicle and Mr Pennells' were still taking a lot of incoming - small arms and more RPGs. So there were a lot of targets and we started taking them out with the chain gun.

Eventually, the dust cloud died down and I could see the other vehicle was OK, which was a major surprise and a real bonus.

Just then, another Warrior from the company came through at high speed. It came between us and Mr Pennells and just barrelled straight down the centre of the road. As it got to perhaps 20 or 30 metres ahead of us, I saw this massive barrage of RPGs, five, six, seven of them, all hit the vehicle, all at once. It just disappeared in the explosions and I remember thinking, Those boys are dead. Speaking to Mr Pennells afterwards, he thought the same.

The smoke cleared and, as we were all still engaging enemy to the left, right and front, I saw someone trying to climb out of the turret. Bearing in mind all the rounds and shrapnel flying around, that wasn’t a good idea at all. We later found out it was the B Company OC, Maj Bradley. It was his vehicle that had been hit and he had taken a lot of the blast. He'd been out of the turret, holding his personal weapon, his SA80, and at least one of the RPGs had struck the turret ring just below him. The shrapnel from the blast had taken off a couple of his fingers and smashed his rifle to pieces, which probably saved his life. But he'd taken a lot more stuff in the face and chest, and had been half-blinded, and had been so disorientated by the explosion that he'd tried to get out of the vehicle. Luckily, Pte Yee Lim, his gunner, had pulled him back in. The same RPG had sent a load more fragments down into the back, too, and the medic and the B Company sergeant major had both been hit. The sarnt major took shrapnel straight in the face, through his arm and straight in the top of his leg, and was in a very bad way.

That was them and their Warrior out of the game, obviously. The vehicle was still drivable - how, I don't know - and Sgt Mick Pike and Pte Lim took command and boxed their way back round to Camp Cherokee to get their casualties sorted.

Meanwhile, the Artillery guys were still under fire from militia, still pinned down, and we were still a good couple of kilometres away.

Two more Warriors, with Sgt Kev Marsh and Lt Scaife in them , then shot through, to try and draw some of the fire away from us so we could start moving again, and we followed. It was a bit disorganised, just common sense stuff. .. they would push through, we would support them, and see where we got to.

We continued getting absolutely malleted all the way down to Red 17, which was where the old Ba'ath Party HQ was and close to where the Artillery boys were supposed to be. We were taking incoming from absolutely everywhere, including across the river, which cuts through Basra at that point.’ (Ibid)

‘Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre’

It was at this point that Thomson’s Warrior took a massive rocket-propelled grenade strike, which caused complete communications failure:

The RPG came in to the right side and knocked all my comms out - all I got every time I tried to get on the net was an electric shock, like a tingly feeling, in my ears and lips, where the mouthpiece goes to the A&R headset. No-one was coming back to me, so the only way I could communicate was by standing up and using hand signals.

In fact what I didn't know was that the whole comms situation had gone tits up with all the fire we'd taken - no-one had comms with Zero, Brigade Ops. We were a little bit blind and didn't know where to go next. I could actually see one of our Snatch vehicles on fire by the Ba'ath Party building, so I knew we were close, but exactly where they were I didn't know. And realistically, they had maybe only 10 minutes left, so we really needed to find them urgently.

We were on a dual carriageway; Kev Marsh was facing the entrance to the Ba'ath Party, Mr Scaife had pushed down the road a bit further and my boss was a few feet away from me on the other carriageway, across the central reservation. We were taking fire from across the river, so I decided to move round and engage them. Again, I had to stand up and make hand signals - there's no way Mr Pennells could have heard me shout, even though we were so close - and as we moved, I don't know what happened, but I managed to get comms back ... though only to Zero. So I can't speak to people 15 or 20ft away, but I can talk to Brigade Ops a few Ks away. Weird. But that was fantastic, because they were able to update me and send current grids for where the Royal Artillery were. If that hadn't happened, it would have been curtains for the RHA boys, I'm sure.

I received the grid and started plotting it on my map to pinpoint where it was, and I realised that I was sitting almost on top of it. It was the burning Land Rover.

Well, it was clear to me that that was not where they were. Whether this was the grid that the Artillery had sent of where they had ditched the vehicles, I don't know.

I sent back, 'That isn't where they are, confirm that grid, I am sat at that grid. At this grid is 1x Snatch vehicle, no military personnel there. All it is is a shell of a Snatch vehicle.'

They came back and confirmed it again. 'That is definitely the grid.'

I went back on the net and said again that it was not right. 'There are no pax there. That is definitely not where they are. There is nowhere that they could go to ground. There is nothing anywhere to say that they are there. I need the grid of where they are.'

By now, the intensity of fire we're taking from across the river is such that all four vehicles are facing that way to give it back. Using the 30mm Rarden, which is a very impressive weapon. My top cover started yelling at me that we were taking incoming from behind us as well and, as he did that, Lt Scaife's Warrior started up and went past us at about Mach 10. Straight out on to the roundabout and just f***ed off up the road. We didn't know what he was doing or where he was going because I had no comms. It turned out that they had taken a casualty, Pte Lee O'Callaghan; he had been on top cover and had been shot in the chest. The round had skimmed his body armour and gone in at an angle; he was just very unlucky. The guys who were in the back of his Warrior said that he died instantly and there was nothing they could do. He was a good guy, Lee. I can't say I knew him very well, because he was relatively new to the company and he wasn't in my platoon, but the lads who knew him well spoke very highly of him. A great tragedy.

Zero then came back to me with a new grid, which centred on a sangar in the back corner of the Ba'ath Party compound. I got back to Zero and asked them to get the RA lads to put smoke up from where they were, just to make sure. Sure enough, some smoke came up from the corner. The entrance to the compound was blocked with big, steel gates, 10ft or 12ft high. I said to my driver, Pte Dan Cooper, 'Coops, do you reckon this Warrior will get through those gates?' He said, 'I dunno.'

I said. 'Just put your foot down and hit them as hard as you can.'

He put his foot down and we smashed straight through, smashing them open, though with the force they banged shut behind us. Immediately, we were hit with small arms and an RPG from the compound guardroom and it was like, 'Bloody hell, can't they leave us alone?'

They were so close - 20 metres maybe - that the RPG didn't have time to arm and had just bounced off. We started traversing the turret and it got stuck. User error on my part. When we'd been firing earlier, I'd been chucking empty clips on the floor of the turret in all the excitement, instead of chucking them out onto the road, and some of them had jammed the turret. So we started trying to free it up, and the fire to our right side got heavier and heavier. We came under more RPG fire from derelict buildings running along the left hand side of the compound. In the end, I got the driver to move the Warrior right round so the turret was facing the guard room, the way we wanted it to be. But I realised that Kev Marsh was on the other side of the wall, so we couldn't engage with chain gun or 30 mil, which meant me and the top cover had to try to take them out with our SA80s.

There were big HESCO barriers in front of the guardroom and there were guys in there just popping their heads round and firing bursts of AK at us. The rounds were bouncing off the wagon, ricocheting all around the turret. One round smashed one of the periscopes which was sat right next to my kidneys.

I was s****g a brick and my arms and legs were shaking and I was trying to aim with my right foot on the turret ring. Anyone with experience of commanding a Warrior will tell you that, normally, with the A&R headset and mike, and your helmet on, trying to get your weapon into the aim position is almost impossible - everything gets in the way. I don't know whether it was the stress or pressure, but I lifted the weapon and the optical sight was right where it should be. As soon as my rifle was up, one of them came out of the guardhouse and stood right in front of me. He was no further than 10 metres away - the distance from the turret to the front of the Warrior and then a little bit more. I could see his face, and I remember it very clearly: he had a lot of heavy stubble, a moustache, a bad complexion, with a big, bouffant hairstyle. Mid 30s, trousers and shirt, holding an AK. He came out, we looked straight into each others' eyes, and he started shooting. I just shot him, bang, bang, bang, and he went down. It was so quick; by the time he hit the ground, another bloke had popped his head round the HESCO and I was having to fire at him.

He popped back in and kept firing rounds at us from the guardroom. The doorway was hidden by this chicane of HESCO barriers, and you could just see inside through this little tiny sliver of an opening. I pulled out a grenade, pulled the pin and threw it straight through the gap. It was about 15 metres away, only a few inches wide and there were rounds pinging off all around me, so I was amazed I'd got it through. I remember thinking, F*** me, I couldn't do that again ... that was cool!

But then nothing happened. I started thinking, Blimey ... did I take the transit clip off? Because our grenades have this little metal strip, as well as the pin. Did I even take the pin out? I was really flapping, so I grabbed another grenade, made absolutely sure I removed the transit clip and pulled the pin and lobbed that one. Again, it went straight through the door. I thought, F***ing hell, I should have taken up darts! And the second one in, it wouldn't even have had time to hit the floor before the first one went off, and there was a double explosion which destroyed whoever was in the guardroom. It's weird - they detonated within six seconds, and that six seconds had felt like forever.

We moved the wagon on towards the sangar, still taking incoming. The top cover, through the crew briefing, told me two more guys had come up round the back of the guardroom and had got into another sangar on top of it.

In a way, that was a good position for them, right on the back wall. It enabled them to fire down at us and throw grenades at us and over the wall down on to Kev Marsh's vehicle. My driver was, at that stage, s****ing himself. He was battened down, but the grenades were hitting his hatch and rolling down onto the dirt in front of him.

In another way, it wasn't a good position for them, because there was nowhere for them to go. We neutralled our Warrior round, brought the gun up - because it could still elevate and depress - and got it on to them, and I put a stream of 30mil straight into their position. It was a risk, because Kev was just the other side of the wall and he'd have caught the debris coming off the sangar, but when you weighed it up it was the only thing to do. You do wonder about these people. Once they got up there and started throwing grenades, they had seconds to live, basically. But life was cheap out there and none of them seemed that bothered about dying. They would stand there and fight, when the sensible thing to do would have been to withdraw.

With them out of the way, we cracked on to the back of the Ba'ath Party to pick these Artillery guys up.

By now, the soldiers in the back had managed to dig the clips out from underneath the turret, so we were able to power traverse again. I can say with certainty that I will never throw clips down into a turret again. We're still getting hit left, right and Chelsea and often couldn't pinpoint where it was coming from because there were so many guys there... at least 50 of them, though it could have been 300 for all I know. There wasn't a second when we weren't being engaged. I dealt with as many as I could, and I took a fair few of their positions out, as did my top cover, but they were moving around so much that you just did your best. You'd take rounds from the left, turn to deal with that and you'd get hit from the right. You deal with that, someone opens up from in front. It was 360 degrees. I kept pushing on and we got to the sangar. But no-one came out. I got one of the dismounts to open our rear door and give them a good shout. Nothing. I beeped the horn. Nothing. I got on the net and said, 'Look, if they're in this sangar they need to come out now. I am at the grid and they need to make themselves known because I am taking incoming and we need to get out of here.'

Still nothing came, so I made the decision - they are not in there and we were getting out.’ (Ibid)

So Close, and Yet So Far

As it turned out, the house the Royal Artillery soldiers were in was a matter of feet away, right next to the compound on the other side of the high wall; the grid reference they had given was correct, but the wall kept them hidden from Thomson and his crew. The exit route for Thomson’s Warrior was the way that they had come in, and so they were forced to go back through the ‘firing range’. Thomson radioed to say that the Artillery men were not at the grid co-ordinates provided, and despite still being under fire, awaited further instructions. In the interim period Terry Bryan and his men had been extracted by another Warrior, but Thomson was not to know that:

‘I went left and around Kev, and a small pick up truck came from nowhere onto the waste ground to our left. The back was full of guys carrying small arms, and they were jumping off it and engaging us. Before I had chance to say anything to my driver, he just put his foot down and drove straight over the pick up, and the top cover and the gunner dealt with the people on the ground. Another load of them opened up on us from a sangar so I engaged them with my weapon to get their heads down, and then my gunner traversed and elevated the gun so that it was pointed straight at their position and just malleted it with HE. We were probably five metres away - close enough for them to have jumped down onto the Warrior. Looking back, we were incredibly lucky that none of us were hit throughout this whole thing. WO2 Alexander then got back on the net and said, 'Cancel. One of the other call signs has picked up the eight pax.'

Which was a relief. The boss and Kev and I managed to communicate with hand signals and we moved around to support the extraction - the section in the back of the other Warrior, who were led by Cpl Shaun Robson, were having to make a fighting withdrawal because the Artillery guys were in the back of their vehicle, so we held the ground to enable them to move out.

And although we took a lot more fire, we all safely got out of there and got back to camp. It wasn't until then that we realised that the OC, the sarnt major, the medic and others had been injured. But we didn't have time to dwell on that because Sgt Ben Kelly, a very professional and effective operator, was already taking over the sergeant major's role and bombing all our Warriors back up so we could go out and cover the Cheshires as they extracted from their cordon position. We got a hot debrief, a couple of minutes or so, and we were all back out.’ (Ibid)

Despite Thomson’s heroics being obvious to others, the award of his Conspicuous Gallantry Cross came as a shock to him:

‘The medal was a big surprise. I know lots of people who've done what I would say were braver things. The CO had called us all together and read out Chris Broome's name, and some details of what he'd done to get his C.G.C., and then he read my name out. I was totally shocked. I stood up, went red and couldn't think of anything to say. I didn't even know what a C.G.C. was - my mate Shane who lives nearby looked it up on the internet and filled me in, which was when I realised it was quite serious.’ (Ibid)

As a result of the gallantry displayed in TELIC 4 the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment became one of the most decorated regiments in the British Army - adding a V.C. and two C.G.C.’s, amongst other awards, to their roll of honour. Their extraordinary tour is ably described in Dusty Warriors, by Richard Holmes.

Thomson advanced to Sergeant, and returned for another tour of Iraq during TELIC 8 in 2006. He served with A Company, and was the only member of the company who had been in Basra at the time. As such he was tasked with leading the company in to Basra when a Lynx helicopter crashed in May 2006 - resulting in five personnel dead. In total Thomson spent 14 months on operational service in Iraq.

Sold with the following original related items and documents: C.G.C. Royal Mint case of issue; Order of Service for recipient’s Investiture Ceremony at Buckingham Palace, dated 28 April 2005, with Parking Permit; copy of citation; Letter of Congratulation from Lieutenant General J. C. McColl, Colonel Commandant The Queen’s Division, on the occasion of the award of recipient’s C.G.C., dated 24 March 2005; letter to the same effect from Air Marshal Sir Glenn Torpey, Chief of Joint Operations, Permanent Joint Headquarters (UK), dated 18 March 2005; another from Major General G. C. M. Lamb, General Officer Commanding 3rd (United Kingdom) Division, dated 23 March 2005; another from Major General J. Cooper, General Officer Commanding, 1st (United Kingdom) Armoured Division, dated 18 March 2004 [sic]; another from Brigadier E. R. Holmes, Colonel of the Regiment, Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment, dated 29 March 2005; another from Brigadier R. L. Scott-Bowden, Director of Infantry, dated 23 March 2005; another from Brigadier A. C. P. Kennett, Headquarters, 1 Mechanized Brigade, dated 20 March 2005; another from Brigadier P. R. Newton, Assistant Chief of Staff J2, Permanent Joint Headquarters (UK), dated 3 April 2005; another from Colonel J. E. Cameron, Assistant Director Operations 1, Directorate Counter Terrorism & UK Operations (Military), dated 19 March 2005; another from Major A. P. Carré, B Company, 1st Battalion, The Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment, dated 31 March 2005; another from Major D. J. Bradley, B Company, 1st Battalion, The Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment, dated 18 April 2005; newspaper cuttings; photographic images from recipient’s service career, and Investiture photographs of the recipient; an official DVD with coverage of recipient’s investiture at Buckingham Palace, and other ephemera.

For the recipient’s related miniature awards, see Lot 1151.