Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Five: Captain R. L. Pryce, Royal Engineers, attached Royal Bombay Sappers and Miners, Indian Army, who was Mentioned in Despatches for distinguished service in Burma

1939-45 Star; Burma Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, with M.I.D. oak leaf; Efficiency Medal, G.VI.R., 2nd issue, Territorial (Lt. R. L. Pryce. R.E.) mounted as worn, nearly extremely fine (5) £100-£140

M.I.D. London Gazette 19 July 1945.

Ray Leighton Pryce was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers on 4 January 1942. Promoted Lieutenant on 1 October 1942, he served during the Second World War in the Arakan from 1944 to 1945 with the 93rd Field Company, Royal Bombay Sappers and Miners, as part of the 25th Indian Division.

The regimental history of the Royal Bombay Sappers & Miners 1939-1947 includes the following account by Captain W. W. Guthrie, M.C.: ‘We arrived in the Maungdaw area in late March 1944. Contact with the enemy was taking place mainly high up on the west side of the Mayu Range inland from Maungdaw and slightly south of the tunnel road to Buthedaung... Besides manning our perimeter… we improved the single access road to the tunnel area… At other times we played infantry, making shallow reconnaissances to the south… After the monsoon there was more extensive patrolling in force and we accompanied the infantry on these sorties. On an expedition with the Oxford & Buckinghamshires… we were subject to mortar fire from the foothills. One round landed among Ray Pryce’s Mahrattas leaving one man with severe leg wounds.’

For his distinguished services in Burma, Pryce was Mentioned in Despatches. He subsequently joined the Bath branch of the Burma Star Association in 1976.