Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Five: Captain J. K. Copeland, Royal Tank Regiment, attached 25th Dragoons, Royal Armoured Corps, killed in action in Burma on 17 February 1944

India General Service 1936-39, 1 clasp, North West Frontier 1936-37 (7883992 Pte., R. Tank C.); 1939-45 Star; Burma Star; Defence and War Medals; together with father’s British War and Victory Medal pair (93178 A.B.Q.M. Sjt. M. H. Copeland, R.A.) generally good very fine or better (7) £250-300

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of Medals to the Tank Corps formed by the late Bill Green.

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Captain James Keith Copeland was commissioned from the ranks as a War Substantive Lieutenant on 7 December 1940, and promoted to the rank of Temporary Captain on 23 March 1942. He was killed in action in Burma on 17 February 1944, aged 28 years, whilst serving with the Royal Tank Regiment, attached 25th Dragoons, Royal Armoured Corps. He is buried at Taukkyan War Cemetery, Rangoon, Burma.

The following is extracted fom Some Letters From Burma, by Tom Grounds. ‘17th February 1944: Captain Copeland, second in command of ‘B’ Squadron, and Squadron Sergeant-Major Devenport went to the support of 9 Brigade ‘B’ Echelon to knock out three machine-guns and evacuate some wounded. About 2:30pm Captain Copeland was fatally wounded in the head by a machine-gun bullet... The death of Captain Copeland was something of a shock and a loss to the Squadron and to the Regiment. He had been with the regiment since it’s days at Risalpur and before.’

The following is extracted from a letter written by Brigadier H.M.H. Ley, C.B.E. to Bill Green in August 1997, the original of which is included with the lot. ‘... He [‘Jimmy’ Copeland]lost his life commanding his troop in a “vengeance” operation against the Japs who had got into our Main Dressing Station and murdered the doctors, orderlies and patients. Jimmy’s troop killed most, if not all, the Japs who stayed there the next morning. The tanks fired H.E. with a “graze” fuse into the trees where they burst and scattered the area with shell splinters. The Japs who didn’t get caught by this lot got wiped up by a company of the West Yorks - a very good battalion.’