Auction Catalogue

22 July 2015

Starting at 10:00 AM

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Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Washington Mayfair Hotel  London  W1J 5HE

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Lot

№ 56

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22 July 2015

Hammer Price:
£3,400

A fine Second World War Western Desert operations M.M,. group of six awarded to Warrant Officer Class 2 G. G. Rose, 3/4th County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters) (R.A.C.), who was originally recommended for the D.C.M. for his gallantry in repairing and rescuing stricken tanks under fire - one such act being carried out with ‘a hail of bullets falling round him’

Military Medal, G.VI.R. (7892934 A./W.O. Cl. II G. G. Rose, Co. of Lond. Y.); 1939-45 Star; Africa Star, clasp, 8th Army; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Efficiency Medal, G.VI.R., 1st issue (7892934 Tpr. G. G. Rose, M.M., Sharpshooters), good very fine or better (6) £1200-1500

M.M. London Gazette 26 March 1942. The original recommendation - for a D.C.M. - states:

‘This Warrant Officer with his fitters was always right up in the battle areas during recent operations in the Western Desert during the periods 18-29 November and 23-30 December 1941. Although travelling only in an unarmed truck, he would time and time again come up to a tank which had broken down while in action and, although under heavy fire, would get about putting the trouble right as if nothing was happening about him and as if only the vehicle being made a “runner” mattered.

During the battle of the area of the S.A. Leaguer on 23 November 1941, he was working on a broken-down tank with shells falling all round him. By the time he got the tank going the enemy were in the leaguer; he made dashes from one slit trench to another, found his fitters and lorry and drove out almost through the enemy lines.

Again on 30 December 1941, when we had to withdraw at Belandah, he stayed behind in a desperate effort to get a tank going and so strengthen our slender force. He stayed at work on his tank until the enemy were dangerously close and got away with only a few seconds to spare, a hail of bullets falling round him.

It was due to his courage in coming right up on these occasions and to his great ability that many tanks were saved and crews prevented from falling into enemy hands. His great spirit inspired all the regimental fitters.’

George Gibson Rose, a native of Dundee, was born in June 1909 but was employed as an engineer south of the border at the time of his enlistment in the County of London Yeomanry (Territorials) in May 1939. He was released from the service at Edinburgh in October 1945, but appears to have remained in the Territorials until the 1950s, latterly as a member of R.E.M.E.

Sold with a quantity of original documentation, including the recipient’s Buckingham Palace M.M. forwarding letter and related War Office communication, together with official correspondence in respect of his campaign awards; his Soldier’s Service and Pay Book, and Soldier’s Release Book (Class ‘A’); a quantity of wartime vintage photographs (approx. 20), the majority relating to the recipient’s period of active service in the Middle East; a wartime scrapbook with assorted newspaper cuttings, and much besides.