Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A rare Northern Ireland operations Q.G.M. group of four awarded to Corporal F. C. Griffiths, Royal Engineers, the ‘final approach man’ in an R.E. Search Team during numerous missions in the Province, not least in a clearance operation in the Falls Road in April 1989 - when he was confronted by a Semtex booby trap

Queen’s Gallantry Medal (24688824 Spr. Frank C. Griffiths, R.E.); General Service 1962, 1 clasp, Northern Ireland (24688824 Spr. F. C. Griffiths, R.E.); U.N. Medal, UNPROFOR riband; N.A.T.O. Medal, clasp, Former Yugoslavia, mounted court-style as worn, number officially corrected on the first, good very fine (4) £6000-8000

Q.G.M. London Gazette 15 May 1990.

Frank Charles Griffiths entered the Royal Engineers direct from the Army Apprentices College, Chepstow, in August 1986. Joining the strength 4 Field Regiment, R.E., in November 1986, he was similarly employed when ordered to Northern Ireland as a Search Sapper in March 1989, where he joined a six man unit N32A - call sign “November Three Two Alpha”. And it was in this capacity that he was involved in a number of clearance operations, not least the occasion he was called to some derelict buildings in the Falls Road, Belfast, on 3 April 1989. Griffiths’ own - modest - account of the incident states:

‘We left Antrim at about 1830 on 2 April 1989 and spent the night at the North Howard Street Mill in West Belfast. We were on standby at 0500 on the 3rd and actually arrived on site about 0700. We did a clearance and isolation of the intended ICP once we arrived. After that we did a large and small isolation of the derelicts. This took most of the morning and on completion we were relieved by N32B. We returned to North Howard Street Mill. That afternoon ATO set used a concussion charge in the derelict and actually set off a terrorist device. The morning of the 4th we arrived at the same ICP at approximately 0700 hours to continue where N32B left off. At 1100 we were clearing the hallway on the ground floor. We pulled up a bag of plaster and, on examining it, noticed a white twin flex wire coming from the bottom of the bag into the wall. At this point ATO took over and revealed it to be an active VAD (booby trap) containing a pressure pad, a timing power unit (TPU) and approximately 2kg. of Semtex explosive. The night of the 4th the Falls Road was re-opened and the cordon collapsed, so surveillance equipment was left in the derelict to find out if entry was gained overnight. No one entered the house that night so the morning of the 5th we arrived on site but used a different ICP. So we did a new isolation of the derelict houses. ATO then went through the upstairs rooms using only concussion charges, so we were not used until about 1500 hours when we cleared the back gardens. We were back to North Howard Street Mill for about 1800 hours and got back to Antrim at approximately 1915 hours. Awarded Q.G.M. for this incident.’

Other search operations Griffiths undertook in this period included a trip to the Creggan Estate in Londonderry on 31 March, when an AK47 and FNC 2000 were discovered behind false walls - the occupants of the house were arrested and further research ascertained that the FNC 2000 had been used to murder Lance-Corporal Downs in the previous month. Indeed an accompanying file contains many further accounts of him and N32A in action, together with related photographs and maps.

Griffiths received his Q.G.M. at a Buckingham Palace investiture held on 25 July 1990.

Having then been advanced to Lance-Corporal, he joined 11 Field Squadron, R.E., in September 1992, in which capacity he served in Operation “Grapple” in Bosnia as a Section 2nd in Command in October 1993-April 1994, while in March-September 1997, he returned to the region as a Section Commander in 29 Field Regiment, R.E. And he also completed another ‘Search Tour’ in Northern Ireland in 1998-99. One of his final appointments was in 6 H.Q. Squadron, 22 Engineer Regiment, at Tidworth.

Also sold with a further quantity of original career documentation, including Buckingham Palace investiture letter and numerous congratulatory letters on the award of his Q.G.M., among them the following from General Sir Peter Inge, K.C.B.:

‘I understand that as a member of an R.E. Search team you were responsible for clearing a building in which a secondary device was found. Your commitment and extremely high standard of professionalism, even though your life was undoubtedly at great risk, was a fine example to all your comrades.’