Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Eight: Private N. A. Ward, Gloucestershire Regiment, late Royal West Kent Regiment, who having been taken P.O.W. in the 1939-45 War, suffered a similar fate at Imjin River in April 1951: a member of Farrar-Hockley’s ‘A’ Company on the latter occasion, he - or his brother - later submitted a witness statement in respect of the posthumous award of the V.C. to Lieutenant Philip Curtis

1939-45 Star; Africa Star; Italy Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Korea 1950-53 (6344572 Pte. N. A. Ward, Glosters); U.N. Korea 1950-54; International Prisoners of War Commemorative Medal, with Bar, the 1939-45 campaign awards and U.N. Korea Medal added for display purposes in recent years, good very fine and better (8) £600-800

Norman A. Ward was born in Wandsworth, London, in April 1921, and enlisted in the Royal West Kent Regiment in 1938. Taken P.O.W. during the 1939-45 War - presumably in Italy - he was interned in Stalag IVF at Hartmansdorf, Chemnitz.

Recalled as a Regular Reservist at the time of the Korea War and, in common with his brother, he joined the 1st Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment. And it was as a member of ‘A’ Company, under Anthony Farrar-Hockley, that he was taken P.O.W. at the battle of Imjin River in April 1951:

‘A Company had had a particularly rough time at the Imjin battle, which included the determined defence of Castle Hill during the night of 22-23 April, followed by 48 hours on Hill 235. The severity of the action is reflected in the casualties and the awards made later. Not a single officer or man from the company escaped becoming a casualty. Of the 109 men that started the battle on Castle Hill, all were either killed, wounded or taken prisoner. For their gallantry during the fighting, or in captivity, members of A Company won 1 V.C., 1 G.C., 2 D.C.Ms, 1 M.M. and is M.I.Ds’ (The Last Eleven, by Mark Adkin, refers).

The V.C. in question was the posthumous award to Lieutenant Philip Curtis, Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, who had joined ‘A’ Company on attachment in the previous month. But for his extraordinary gallantry in attacking an enemy machine-gun post on Castle Site, it is unlikely more than a handful of survivors would have reached Hill 235. In the event, 54 men from ‘A’ Company were able to withdraw to the latter feature, among them Ward. And The Last Eleven? refers to a ‘Private Ward’ submitting a sworn statement on his return from captivity, as a witness for the award of Curtis’s V.C. - ‘He moved into the attack for a second time, again throwing grenades. A few yards from the bunker he was mortally wounded by a burst of machine-gun fire in the stomach.’

Whether this was Norman Ward, or his brother, requires further research, as does another reference to one of them in captivity - namely one ‘Private Ward’ and a Lance-Corporal Sharpling who defaced some pictures of Mao Tse-Tung with ‘Hitler moustaches’, much to the anger of their Chinese captors; sold with copied research, including extracts from official correspondence between the War Office and his mother during his captivity.