Orders, Decorations and Medals

Seven: Major J. K. Irvine, Rhodesian Forces, attached South African Forces, who was wounded in action in October 1944 while serving in the 1/6th Field Regiment, S.A.A.

1939-45 Star; Africa Star; Italy Star; Defence and War Medals; Africa Service Medal 1939-45 (S.R. 598437); Efficiency Medal, E.II.R., 2nd issue, Southern Rhodesia (1039 Major), the sixth with attempted erasure of initials and surname, very fine and better and rare (7) £250-300

John Kenneth Irvine was born in Bulawayo in April 1917, and moved to Salisbury in March 1926. A merchant by profession, he enlisted in the Southern Rhodesia Light Battery (S.R.L.B.) in September 1939, was transferred to 4th Battery, Royal Horse Artillery in the Western Desert in April 1940, back to the S.R.L.B. in August 1942, when he was commissioned, and to the 1/6th Field Regiment, South African Artillery in March 1943, in which latter unit he remained employed until the end of hostilities and was wounded in action in Italy on 13 October 1944 - ‘Bomb wounds, scalp’. Irvine, who was released in the rank of Lieutenant in June 1946, was awarded his Efficiency Medal in October 1953; sold with copied service record.