Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Arabian Peninsula (23215835 Tpr. J. Johns. L.G.) minor edge nick, nearly extremely fine, scarce to unit £240-280

J. Johns served with the single Squadron of the Life Guards that served in the Arabian Peninsula during the 1957-59 Jebel-Akhdar War, reaching Aden on 4 September 1958. Equipped with Ferret Mk. II and Saladin armoured cars, they formed part of a small British force sent to assist 22 S.A.S. under Major John Watts. Britain had pledged to support the Sultan of Muscat's attempts to subdue an Egyptian-inspired nationalist uprising led by the Iman of Oman. Vital to British interests was the oil-rich Buraimi Oasis, owned by the Sultan but threatened by the rebels. On 25 January 1959, Watts' force launched a highly successfully attack on rebel forces in the Jebel Akhdar mountains, defeating the insurgency.

Barney White-Spunner's recent history of the Household Cavalry states: ‘The Life Guards were deployed there [Aden] in 1958 and the Royals followed them in 1959. The squadrons escorted convoys from the port up country on what became well known as the Dhala Road. One squadron was detached to Sharjah on the Persian Gulf where it operated under the Sultan of Oman's forces.’