Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Rifleman H. S. Harris, Rifle Brigade and King’s Royal Rifle Corps, who was taken P.O.W. in the defence of Calais in May 1940

General Service 1918-62, 3 clasps, Palestine, Palestine 1945-48, Malaya (6914012 Rfn., K.R.R.C.); 1939-45 Star; War Medal 1939-45, together with Rifle Brigade cap badge, the reverse of the slider engraved ‘Harris’, the first an official but slightly later issue, good very fine (3) £180-220

Henry Stephen Harris, who was born in September 1918 and came from Brentford, Middlesex, enlisted in the Rifle Brigade in May 1938, served in Palestine, and was taken P.O.W. with the 1st Battalion at Calais on 26 May 1940. However, as stated in his P.O.W. debrief, he escaped after two days in captivity - a statement supported by the fact he did not arrive at his first camp, Stalag IIIVB, until early August, so he may well have been on the run for a week or two. Thereafter, however, he remained “in the bag” until the War’s end, having moved to Stalag IIIVA at Gorlitz in 1943, where he was employed in a working party at a flax spinnery at Garbersdoff - in his P.O.W. debrief, he commended a helpful Polish national who lived opposite the spinnery, a point noted by M.I.9. Following his liberation in May 1945, Harris is believed to have served in the 2nd Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps back in Palestine, but in which regiment he was present in the Malaya operations currently remains unknown; sold with copied research.