Orders, Decorations and Medals

A military B.E.M. awarded to Driver M. T. Bignall, Royal Army Service Corps

British Empire Medal (Military) E.II.R. (T/23184602 Dvr. Malcolm T. Bignall, R.A.S.C.) suspension a little slack, minor edge bruising, good very fine £200-240

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Awards to the Army Service Corps.

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B.E.M. London Gazette 22 October 1957. ‘Driver Bignall was driving a fifty ton transporter carrying a Centurion tank down a steep hill into the village of Hurstbourne Tarrant, when the brakes failed completely. He endeavoured to steer the vehicle into the left hand bank in order to slow its momentum, but owing to the combined weight of the tank and trailer this manoeuvre was unsuccessful. Realising that an accident was now inevitable he ordered his co-driver to jump from the vehicle, whilst he remained at the wheel in an effort to control the vehicle’s passage, but as it gathered speed and momentum the flywheel disintegrated and the flying pieces injured him. Even so he managed to slew the vehicle across the road into a field and avoid the village of Hurstbourne Tarrant. In the resultant crash he received serious injuries.

With copied extracts from the London Gazette and The Andover Advertiser re the crash and award.