Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Six: Regimental Sergeant-Major M. T. McCarthy, South Wales Borderers, who shot dead a bandit in Eritrea in 1949

General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Palestine (3960492 Sgt., S.W.B.), single initial ‘M.’; 1939-45 Star; Africa Star, these two privately engraved, ‘3960492 W.O. II M. T. McCarthy, 2/S.W.B.’; Defence and War Medals; Army L.S. & G.C., E.II.R., Regular Army (3960492 W.O. Cl. 2, S.W.B.), single initial ‘M.’, the first with one or two obverse surface scratches and contact wear overall, otherwise generally very fine and better (6) £250-300

The following obituary notice appeared in the South Wales Borderers Journal:

‘It is with deep regret that we have to announce the death on 14 October 1955, of the R.S.M. of the 1st Battalion, W.O. I M. T. McCarthy (3960492). Mr. McCarthy embarked with the battalion for Malaya on 21 September 1955, and was taken ill during the voyage. He was taken off the ship in Egypt and died in the British Military Hospital at Fayid after an illness of a few days. He was buried with full military honours at Fayid Military Cemetery on 14 October 1955. Lieutenant-Colonel W. R. D. Vernon-Harcourt, O.B.E., of the Regiment was present and escorted Mrs. McCarthy and, most appropriately, the burial party was found by the 1st Battalion, The Royal Warwickshire Regiment.

The late R.S.M. enlisted at Pontypridd in January 1936, and joined the 2nd Battalion in Palestine in July of that year. During the war he served with the 1st Battalion as a Sergeant and W.O. II in India, Iraq and later in the Western Desert, where he was one of the few who got away in the break out from Bir Hamid. In 1949, after various E.R.E. appointments, he rejoined the 1st Battalion as a C.S.M. and served with them in Cyprus, Khartoum and Eritrea.’

An earlier edition of the regimental journal had reported the story of his run-in with a bandit at Asmara in 1949:

‘C.S.M. McCarthy, when returning in a jeep from a Recce, found an Italian car which had just been held up and robbed. They gave chase to the Shifta, and just before they disappeared over the shoulder of the hill C.S.M. McCarthy hit one at extreme range with a Sten gun. This was confirmed a few days later by the Civil Intelligence Officer and the man eventually died.’