Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The G.S.M. Malaya awarded to Trooper Albert Davies, A Squadron, Malayan Scouts, 22 Special Air Service Regiment and Royal Signals, who was one of the original members of Brigadier ‘Mad’ Mike Calvert’s newly formed Malayan Scouts in 1950

General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Malaya, G.VI.R. (22296304 Sigmn. A. Davies. R. Sigs.); together with the recipient’s original Malay Scouts S.A.S. cloth badge, this rare, nearly extremely fine £1500-2000

Sold with a small quantity of original captioned photographs and other documentation relating to the recipient’s time with the Malayan Scouts, including Malayan Scouts Christmas card and a number of photographs including Albert Davies in the Malayan jungle. Also including two published accounts of his services in the Malayan Scouts, one printed in a newspaper whilst he was still serving and the other many years later, from which the following is extracted:

‘When I saw the notice, pinned to the notice board, seeking volunteers for the Malayan Scouts, my heart leapt. My chance to get out of here. "Here" was GHQ FARELF, Tanglin Barracks, Singapore. I was a wireless operator in the Royal Signals. I didn't like it there because it was too stiff and formal. Perfectly dressed at all times. Not as comfortable as it had been at HQ 31 Lorried Infantry Brigade, 7 Armoured Division, (Desert Rats), stationed in Melle, Germany, in 1946-48. The war had been over for a year and a half and life was cushy. I volunteered immediately , even though I had little or no idea what it was all about. It sounded good.

The first group on site, at the back of the Gurkha barracks in Johar Bahru, were a dozen signals personnel, wireless operators, of whom I was one, under Lieutenant Batty. We set up the signals equipment and pitched tents, and dug trenches around them, for those yet to come. I remember training with air rifles and fencing masks for eye protection, one group stalking another in the jungle. And inflatable boats in which we attempted a crossing of Johor Bahru Strait to Singapore Island and damned near got swept out to sea. We sweated our things off trying to get back to the mainland.

At some point we left the Gurkhas and went to Dusun Tua, about 18 miles east of Kuala Lumpur (always called KL). The Japanese once had a camp there and had built a bath, about the size of a small swimming pool, fed by a hot spring. We lived in huts made of atap. You could step out of the camp and into the jungle. There was a village close by, on the other side of a river which was one of our borders. Their houses were on stilts 6 to 8 feet high. Tigers roamed. One was shot there weighing 230 lbs, in August 1952. I still have the newspaper report, that's how I know. Wild pigs were abundant. There was also a large tree in the camp, housing hundreds of flying foxes, fruit bats, which took off at dusk every day and returned at dawn.

The Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel "Mad Mike" Calvert, once had a belly bashing contest with a Trooper. Both of them had big bellies, and, I've no doubt, full of beer at the time, and both ended up in the pool.

The first jungle operation quickly started and lasted over three months, during which I and others manned the sets at D.T. The second started with me still at base but very soon 4 Troop's wireless operator was bitten by a snake and I was sent in to replace him. I landed at jungle base at Kampong Aur, in an Auster plane, a little two seater if I remember right, and took up duties as Major John Woodhouse's wireless operator. I assume his operation was with 4 Troop. I was with him, I suppose about a week, but during that brief spell I developed an admiration for him greater than for anyone else I had ever met in the Army. An inspiring leader. I wished I could have stayed with him...

Another time, in the swamp. The tracker said "Elephants". Soon thereafter I fell into a hole and disappeared and the guy who pulled me out said "I wouldn't have known if I hadn't seen your hat floating". We were covered in leeches every day.

The Commander of 4 Troop neglected to insert a plate in the cup which screws onto the muzzle of a rifle, into which you insert a smoke grenade. The result was a burst grenade and flying phosphor , some of which landed on his head. It burns and is hard to put out. As a result he had a nasty wound which got worse in time . Eventually he wrote out a message for the MO and gave it to me to send. I had helped him dress the wound and it got to smell bad. I suspected gangrene. So I added a bit to his MO message: "Bad smell emanates from wound." We got an immediate response and medicine and a hypodermic were flown in with instructions. I gave the injections since we had no medic. He lived.

We lost part of an air drop. It got hung up in a huge tree made of iron. Machetes bounced off it. Several turns of explosive rope didn't even shake it: We went without food and smokes for a week and ate a monkey and a snake and I ate the liver of an iguana. It was terrible...’