Auction Catalogue
Create new list‘Sid Clark was a well-known long-serving and highly respected member of 21 S.A.S. He never wanted to be a soldier as a boy but when the call came in 1939 Sid was already serving as a Territorial with a heavy A.A. Regiment. He went back to T.A. Camp in September 1939 and never came back until 1946. He came off the beaches at Dunkirk and served with the 8th Army and in Special Forces to the end of the war. He joined 21 S.A.S. in 1950 and volunteered for Malaya, helping in the formation of 22 S.A.S. there. He was then Boat Sergeant and when the Boat Troop broke up he joined the Demolition Stick but was unlucky to break a leg in a motor accident at Bisley and later joined H.Q. Squadron as Rations Sergeant ... A great supporter of the S.A.S. and Artists Rifles Associations and 21 S.A.S. Sergeants’ Mess, well over a hundred people attended his funeral including many representatives from the Regiment and the Associations. He has a unique place in S.A.S. history as one of the 16 founder members of 21 S.A.S. who, as Territorials, joined The Malayan Scouts from which the regular 22 S.A.S. was founded.’
Sergeant S. C. Clark’s obituary notice in Mars & Minerva, The Journal of the Special Air Service, April 1992, refers.
A Second World War and Malaya campaign service group of six awarded to Sergeant S. C. Clark, Special Air Service, late Royal Artillery and Royal West Kent Regiment
1939-45 Star; Africa Star, clasp,1st Army; Italy Star; Defence and War Medals; General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Malaya (22290729 Tpr. S. C. Clark, S.A.S.), mounted loose-style as worn, together with cloth S.A.S. uniform shoulder flash and parachute wings, two embroidered Royal West Kent divisional uniform patches and two buttons, some official corrections to naming on last, nearly very fine and better (Lot) £800-1200
Sidney Charles Clark was born in Hackney, London in February 1920 and enlisted in the Royal Artillery (Territorials) in April 1939. Embarked For France in 80 H.A.A. Regiment, he saw action with the B.E.F. and returned to the U.K. via Dunkirk in June 1940. It was in the same unit that he was embarked for North Africa, in November 1942, but in April 1944 he transferred to the Royal West Kent Regiment and witnessed further action in Italy in 1944-45.
Having been demobilised and placed on the Army Reserve in June 1946, Clark enlisted in the Army Air Corps (Territorials) in November 1949 and in 21 S.A.S. in September 1950. A founder member of the latter unit, he served in Malaya in the period January 1951 to September 1953 (Medal & clasp). He was also entitled to the Efficiency Medal (AO 119 of 1946, refers). Back in the U.K., he was advanced to Sergeant in December 1959 and served as Boat Sergeant of the Boat Troop and as a member of the Demolition Stick, prior to joining H.Q. Squadron, 21 S.A.S. after a serious injury. Clark, who appears to have retired in the mid-1960s, died in December 1990; sold with copied research, including T.A. and S.A.S. service records.
Sold with a quantity of original documentation, including the recipient’s Boy Scouts Association Membership Card (Hackney District), dated 16 March 1932; his Certified Copy of Attestation for the Army Air Corps, dated 15 November 1949, and Copy of Regular Army Attestation, dated 28 September 1950; a 16th Airborne Division (T.A.) personal accident insurance certificate dated 14 March 1950, named to the recipient as a member of 21st S.A.S. Regiment; a ‘call to arms’ letter from Anthony Greville-Bell, D.S.O., in respect of a small S.A.S. unit being raised for service overseas, dated September 1950; two official communications in respect of his application for an appointment as a Lieutenant in the Malayan Police, dated in February 1953; two similar in respect of the recipient being paid a disability allowance in 1961-62, and seven related payment / account summaries; and three letters from the recipient’s wife, dated in September 1962, and addressed to him at H.Q. Squadron, 21st S.A.S., B.F.P.O. 515’.
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