The Collection of Medals Formed by Bill and Angela Strong

A Second World War campaign group of five awarded to Warrant Officer Class 2 I. O. P. Bradley, Royal Artillery, who made a gallant escape attempt while a prisoner in Thailand in June 1943, but was ultimately recaptured and sentenced to life

General Service 1918-62, 2 clasps, Palestine, Cyprus (838011 Gnr. I. O. P. Bradley, R.A.); 1939-45 Star; Pacific Star; War Medal 1939-45, M.I.D. oak leaf; Army L.S. & G.C., G.VI.R., 2nd issue, Regular Army (838011 Sjt. I. O. P. Bradley, R.A.), mounted as worn, edge bruising, generally very fine (5) £600-800

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Bill and Angela Strong Medal Collection.

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Ian O’Brien Poston Bradley, who was born in June 1919, enlisted in the Royal Artillery as a boy recruit in May 1934 and served out in Egypt and Palestine 1935-36 and with the B.E.F. in France from October 1939 until June 1940. Embarked for Iraq in November 1941, he was ordered to Malaya with 85th Anti-Tank Regiment, R.A. in January 1942, and served as No. 1 on a 2-pounder gun until taken P.O.W. at Singapore in February.

Moved from Changi to No. 2 Camp in Thailand in April 1943, Bradley carried out a most gallant escape attempt that June. The original recommendation for his subsequent mention in despatches (London Gazette 14 November 1946) states:

‘Sergeant Bradley and seven companions, whilst at Sonkrai, planned to reach China via the Me Ping river, and follow jungle tracks going N.E. to Chengmai. They set off into the jungle on 6 June 1943. After a week of hard going, Bradley and one other developed jungle fever, but refused to give up. After following tracks for two weeks, they were alarmed by some natives, and so took to the jungle once again. Later they crossed hilly country and the condition of the two sick men became alarming. Arriving at the next village on 12 July, they all decided to rest, and lived in some nearby caves until the end of September. Here Bradley recovered, but the other man died. Whilst three of the party went out to look for food, the remainder, of whom Bradley was one, were captured by the Japanese on 2 October. A few days later, the others were rounded up and all received a life sentence, at Bangkok. They were transferred on 27 October to Singapore, from where they were liberated in August 1945. Individual determination and co-operation enabled Bradley and his companions to withstand the rigours of the jungle.’

The serviceman who died of jungle fever was Bradley’s brother, also late of the 85th Anti-Tank Regiment.

Incarcerated in Outram Road Jail in Singapore until August 1944, Bradley was moved to Changi in the latter month and remained there until being liberated, his service record noting that he had at one stage or another suffered from malnutrition, dysentery, infected scabies and malaria. Remaining a regular soldier, he was awarded his L.S. and G.C. Medal in 1952, served out in Cyprus in 1958 and was discharged as a Troop Sergeant-Major in September of the following year.