Orders, Decorations and Medals

Seven: Captain H. W. Ashby, 5th and 6th Gurkhas, late Hertfordshire Regiment

1939-45 Star; Africa Star; Burma Star; India Service Medal 1939-45; War Medal 1939-45; General Service 1918-62, 2 clasps, S.E. Asia 1945-46, Malaya (Capt., 5 G.R.); Efficiency Medal, Territorial, G.VI.R. (5990205 Cpl., Herts. Regt.) the last with engraved naming and slack suspension, some with contact marks, otherwise generally good very fine (7) £350-400

Captain Harold William (Gus) Ashby was born in Watford, Herfordshire on 18 May 1921. He was granted an Emergency Commission in the Indian Army in 1943. He was posted to the 3rd Battalion 5th Royal Gurkha Rifles (Frontier Force) towards the end of the Second World War and saw service with the Battalion in Malaya and Dutch East Indies. He later served with the 1st Battalion 6th Gurkha Rifles in Malaya.

He joined the 3/5 G.R. at the time of the preparations for the invasion of Malaya (Operation Zipper) as Battalion Intelligence Officer. After an unopposed landing and the disarming of some of the Japanese forces, including 97 members of the notoriously brutal Kempetei, he accompanied the Battalion to Java where he served as Intelligence Officer, Signals Officer, and as Company Commander. In Java, he confronted the more hazardous duties of a Company Commander, participating in the investigation of an Indonesian-held quinine factory - his section ‘came under heavy fire from a number of houses’, one Gurkha being killed and another four wounded. Ashby was subsequently present in the follow up operation, when the factory was stormed and 19 prisoners taken. He was demobilised in 1947 and returned to the U.K. but rejoined in 1952 taking a short service commission with the 1/6 G.R. and took part in the Malaya Emergency. He resigned his commission in 1957. Captain Ashby died, at the age of 68 years, in 1990.

With copied research including Birth Certificate, service details and obituary.