Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A rare Second World War Immediate M.M. and Bar group of seven awarded to Sergeant Harry J. Guest, Royal Natal Carbineers, late Transvaal Scottish - “I dare wager he holds the unofficial record for the number of personal combats engaged in by a South African infantryman.”

Military Medal, G.VI.R., with Second Award Bar (27087 Pte. H. J. Guest, 1 T.S.) official correction to second initial; 1939-45 Star; Africa Star, clasp, 8th Army; Italy Star; War Medal, with M.I.D. oak leaf; Africa Service Medal, these last five all officially impressed ‘27087 H. J. Guest’; Efficiency Medal, Union of South Africa, G.VI.R., 1st issue (Sgt. H. J. Guest R.N.C.) nearly extremely fine (7) £6000-8000

Only 6 Bars to the Military Medal awarded to South African forces during the Second World War, out of only 181 throughout the Commonwealth for the entire war.

M.M. London Gazette 21 October 1941 (East Africa). The original recommendation states:

‘Private Harry James Guest, 1st Transvaal Scottish. For Marked Gallantry in Action at COMBOLCIA PASS on 22 Apr 41. When his Company was pinned by fire, Pte Guest crept forward with a Bren Gun and put two M.Gs out of action with the result that the Company was able to continue its advance.’

Bar to M.M. London Gazette 8 March 1945 (Italy). The original recommendation states:

‘Corporal (temporary) Harry James Guest, 1st Royal Natal Carbineers. For outstanding leadership and gallantry. On the morning of 10th Oct 44 “D” Coy were attacking Mount Stanco. No. 13 Platoon was held up by very heavy M.G. & rifle fire. No. 27087 Cpl. H. J. Guest was ordered to work round to the rear of the enemy encountering dug-in enemy on his way. These were destroyed and others forced to withdraw in disorder. Continuing, 5 more enemy were encountered and 4 destroyed and 1 taken P.O.W., and the advance was able to continue. Cpl. Guest by his courage and initiative and example was in a large measure responsible for this success.’

Harry James Guest was born on 3rd May 1920 at Kranskop, near Greytown, Natal, and educated at Greytown High School. His father, then Trooper C. W. Guest, Natal Mounted Police, was awarded the Natal D.C.M. for bravery at Impanza between Keate’s Drift and Greytown during the Bambata Rebellion of 1906, when a small body of Natal Police were ambushed and their casualties were four killed and five wounded. The father and son combination of Natal D.C.M. and M.M. and Bar is probably unique in the annals of South African military history.

Harry left school at 16 and his first job was with African Guarantee and in due course he was called up for peacetime training, from 7 January 1937, with the Natal Mounted Rifles. African Guarantee transferred him to Johannesburg in April 1940, which also brought him a transfer to the 1st Batt. The Transvaal Scottish. It was at Combolcia that Private Guest was awarded the Immediate Military Medal in the action when Captain “Doolie” Briscoe, M.C., had been badly wounded and, in spite of the efforts of his Runner Private Lightfoot to carry him to safety, died. Private Lightfoot was awarded the D.C.M. for his part in this action.

Private Guest with his No. 2 on the Bren, Eddie Ford, then decided to try to outflank the Italian position, which they did and got behind 4 Italian Machine Gun positions. The Bren in Guest and Ford’s hands did the rest - “They were sitting ducks” Harry remarked. Harry’s ability and sixth sense to be able to recognise the opportunity to outflank a position accounts in some way for his many successes not only on patrol but when engaged in a set piece attack, and in addition to be able to extricate his platoon on occasions when they were in extreme danger and very vulnerable.

Throughout the Western Desert campaign, especially during the time when the roster meant a night patrol every ten days that stories of Harry’s escapades would circulate the Battalion, always aggressive, always a deadly shot with his Bren, especially from the hip.

Just before “A” Coy went in at Alamein his platoon commander Lieutenant Mike Webb turned to him and said “I bet you five pounds I get a pair of Gerry binoculars before you.” Guest said, “You’re on, Sir” - and then it was Fix Bayonets - through the wire and into German positions. No quarter given and none expected. When the positions had been taken and it was possible to take stock of the situation the gallant Mike Webb had been wounded and was cursing his fate. Harry walked across to see how he was, and when Mike Webb saw a pair of Gerry binoculars around Guest’s neck he looked up at him and said: “You bloody bastard Harry”.

At Alamein, it had been a close thing for Harry as his Bren jammed, luckily so did the Luger of the German officer whom Harry had singled out. In a split second Harry dropped his Bren and grabbed his spare barrel from his No. 2 and felled the Gerry with one mighty swipe across the chest and face.

Harry says that when the Battalion was at Qassasin due to return to the Union, one day Mike Webb returned to the Battalion, as he had been discharged from hospital and was due to second to the British Army, where he won a Bar to his M.C. with No. 2 R.M. Commando, to say “Good-bye”. The first person Mike Webb looked for was Harry, and when he found him there was an outstretched hand and a £5 note in it. “That was Mike Webb” said Harry with a smile.

After service in Abyssinia and the Western Desert, Harry Guest returned to South Africa in January 1943. He was presented with the M.M. at Pretoria on 3 December 1943. The battle at Combolcia Pass earned the Transvall Scottish the sixth of their seven Battle Honours for the campaign in East Africa and Abyssinia 1940-41. In addition to his Immediate M.M., Guest was mentioned in despatches (London Gazette 30 December 1941) for services during the period February to July 1941.

It was when the Transvaal Scottish was at Barberton, that a strong rumour circulated to the effect that a Dominion Brigade was to be formed in the U.K. to go across to France with the Invasion. The rumour had it that the Royal Natal Carbineers would form the South African Battalion of this Brigade. The hundred men, including Guest, who volunteered or requested transfers to the R.N.C., were some of the finest in the Regiment and were a great loss to the Scottish. They were not men who had joined the army to do their bit, but rather men who had trained themselves to be aggressive soldiers, men who had one purpose during the war and that was to get on with the job and destroy the enemy.

Harry Guest soon established a reputation for himself in the Carbineers for patrol work and glowing accounts of his work in the Apennines circulated. A Sixth Division colleague is reported in Stoep Talk, by The Pilgrim, at the time as saying of Guest, “Harry is in every way a character, a holy terror at hand-to-hand fighting in which field I dare wager he holds the unofficial record for the number of personal combats engaged in by a South African infantryman.”

In an account of the capture by the Royal Natal Carbineers of Monte Stanco, on the 5th Army front in Italy, an Army observer says that the objective was not just another hill in the Apennines, but a key feature from which, in a savage battle two days before, German S.S. troops had driven back a battalion of Allied troops fighting with the 6th South African Armoured Troops. The Carbineers fought their way up and took their objective and held on to it for seven hours while the mass of Germans, who greatly outnumbered them, formed up and regardless of loss counter-attacked the exposed right flank. Amongst other acts of gallantry performed that day, Corporal Guest, of No. 12 Platoon, led his section which cleaned up four spandaus and found himself at one stage on his feet facing the largest German soldier he swears he’s ever seen, also standing up with a spandau levelled at him! Guest’s tommy gun jammed and as fate would have it the German’s spandau must have also jammed because he didn’t fire either! In those split seconds Harry shouted to the man next to him “Take him Basil” (Sergeant Basil Beam, M.M.), which saved Guest. After the battle of Monte Stanco Guest was granted an Immediate Bar to his M.M. earned three years earlier.

A few days after the battle of Monte Stanco, Acting Sergeant Guest was ordered to Proceed with his depleted platoon to fill a gap between the right hand flank of the 1st City/Cape Town Highlanders and the left hand flank of the Carbineers. It was very misty at the time and visibility was but a few yards. Guest was leading his men in single file and after making contact with the extreme left flank of the Carbineers, suddenly two bursts of spandau fire rent the air wounding the two men immediately behind Guest. Harry realised that the spandau nest could only be a matter of yards away. He ordered his men to fan out, fix bayonets and charge! “We had only covered about 20 pares through the thick mist when suddenly a German officer with his spandau crew of 4 jumped up and surrendered. The prisoners were duly despatched to H.Q. for interrogation.”

He was awarded the Efficiency Medal, Union of South Africa on 30 July 1945, 12 years and 108 days service from 1 July 1937 to 30 July 1945, with war service counting double.

Harry Guest attended the Victory Parade in London in 1946 when he was selected to be the N.C.O. representing the Royal Natal Carbineers, South Africa’s oldest regiment, with 34 battle honours ranging from the ‘Zulu War 1879’ to ‘Italy 1945’. The officer selected was Lieutenant Quentin Smythe, V.C. The South African Contingent numbered 253 men and women. The parade through London took three hours to pass the saluting base before King George VI and others, including Winston Churchill and Field Marshal Smuts. More than 21,000 men and women took part, including some 3,400 Empire troops representing more than 50 Nations and Territories. The marching column was 4 miles long and the mechanised column was 6 miles long.

Guest received the Bar to his M.M. at the hands of King George VI at a general investiture held at Loftus Versveld rugby ground, Pretoria, during the Royal Visit to South Africa in 1947. After being demobilised he served Secretary to the Mayor of Pietermaritzburg from 1948 to 1960. In this position he drafted the Freedom of the City document given by Pietermaritzburg to the Royal Natal Carbineers in 1955, upon celebrating their centenary. Harry Guest died at Pietermaritzburg on 22 April 2004, shortly before his 84th birthday.

Sold with comprehensive research including copied service documents, discharge certificate, R.N.C. War Diary of the action at Stanco (7pp), numerous copied news cuttings and photographs, including one of Guest being invested by the King with his Bar in 1947; full roll of the S.A. Contingent who attended the Victory Parade in London; also copies of his personal experiences recounted extensively in The Jock Column in March 1981, December 1982 and March 1991, and full obituary from the same publication.