A Small Collection of Medals Relating to the Battle of the River Imjin

Pair: Private S. A. West Gloucestershire Regiment, taken prisoner at the battle of the River Imjin

Korea 1950-53, 1st issue (22107732 Pte., Gloster.); U.N. Korea 1950-54, unnamed; together with an U.S.A. Presidential Unit Citation bar (2) - one cloth, good very fine (4) £600-800

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Small Collection of Medals Relating to the Battle of the River Imjin.

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Samuel Albert West was born on 2 October 1930 in Gosport Hampshire. He joined the Army as a Regular Soldier on a five years Regular Service and 7 years in the Reserve engagement. Although as a Lance-Corporal he was at one time the Second in Command of a Rifle Section, on arrival in Korea he was trained by the American Army to become a sniper and then served in Battalion Headquarters as part of the Sniper Section commanded by Lieutenant H. C. Cabral and Sniper Sergeant J. Leathmen. The Sniper Section was attached to the Medical Section and in The Imjin Roll by Colonel E.D. Harding D.S.O. it gives the location of Sam West as ‘Med. Sec.’ Private West, Gloucestershire Regiment was taken prisoner during the fierce fighting at the battle of the River Imjin. Sam West suffered two years and four months imprisonment and had to endure hardship, hunger and long sessions of Political Indoctrination, known in the West as ‘Brain Washing’. He was eventually released at Panmunjom on 12 August 1953 and left the Army on 3 March 1954 and died in Hampshire in June 1995 aged 64 years.

Sold with a photocopy of a broadcast to his Father Mr Robert G. West of 113 Whitworth Road, Gosport, Hampshire and a reply from Mr West about a letter from his Son to the Under Secretary of State, the War Office, Whitehall. Plus notes from Lance-Corporal West relating to the deaths of Corporal Hurst, Lance-Corporal D. Mew and Private Penrose - all members of 1st Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment who died while in captivity.  
  
The Imjin Battle started on Sunday 22 April 1951 when wave after wave of Chinese infantry attacked the Gloster Battalion position. In the course of a three-day battle, the main thrust of the Chinese 63rd Army was directed against the Gloster’s position and it is estimated that the Chinese suffered over 7000 casualties. After 60 hours of intense hand-to-hand fighting the Battalion was gradually forced back onto Hill 235, later known as Gloster Hill. Air resupply parachutes fell into enemy hands and the attempt at rescue by an armoured column led by the 8th Hussars failed. When the ammunition state was only three rounds per man, the Commanding Officer, Colonel J. .P Carne D.S.O., gave the order- ‘Break Out. Move independently. Make your own way back to the Allied Lines’.
 
It was a daunting task and required great bravery and determination. Many tried and were killed in the attempt. Colonel Carne told the Doctor, Captain R.P. Hickey R.A.M.C.  ’I’m afraid we will have to leave the wounded behind’. There were some 80 casualties lying in an improvised Regimental Aid Post, so Captain Hickey decided he would remain with these wounded men and not try to escape. The Padre, the Reverend S. J. Davies R.A.Ch.D. also decided to remain with the wounded saying to Medical Sergeant S. J Brisland, ‘This looks like a holiday in Peking for some of us’. The men of the Medical Section thus gave up their chance to escape for, as they saw it, ‘It was their duty to remain and look after the wounded’. They were then captured by the Chinese. In the Imjin Battle the Glosters suffered over 600 casualties, killed, wounded and taken prisoner. Among those taken prisoner were the Doctor Captain Hickey who was awarded the M.C., the Rev. Davies who was awarded the M.B.E., Lieutenant Cabral who died in captivity and was awarded the M.I.D., Sergeants Leatham and Brisland and Lance-Corporal Sam West.
 
Colonel Carne was awarded the Victoria Cross for his leadership and gallantry at the Battle of Imjin, as was Lieutenant P.F.K. Curtis who was killed leading his platoon in a counter attack. The Battalion were awarded the Battle Honour “IMJIN” and, as a result of their bravery, the President of the United States awarded the Battalion as a whole a Presidential Citation. This gave those who served at the time the privilege of wearing a distinctive emblem on their uniform. The emblem was a piece of dark blue watered silk ribbon enclosed in a gilt metal frame. Those who served with the Battalion at the Battle could wear the emblem all through their service.
 
The Queen also decreed that the 1st Battalion on ‘Back badge Day’, their Regimental Day, could wear on the pike of their Regimental Colour a ‘Streamer Emblem of the United States Presidential Citation awarded to the Regiment for distinguished service at Solma- Ri’.  
 
The Presidential Citation reads as follows ‘The courageous soldiers of the Battalion were holding the critical route selected by the enemy for one column of the General Offensive designed to encircle and destroy 1st Corps. These gallant soldiers would not retreat ...... their heroic stand provided the critically needed time to regroup the other Corps units and block the southern advance of the enemy.’
 
The action of the three days in April 1951 required the British soldier to shoot straight, keep cool and hold fast. The Glosters more than measured up to what was demanded of them. Their medals represent the most famous British Army post war battle.
 
Note: In 2007 The Gloucestershire Regiment was amalgamated into The Rifles and became the 1st Battalion The Rifles. Although all the Battalions of The Rifles still wear the back badge, which is a Sphinx surrounded by a laurel wreath, the Presidential Citation emblem is no longer worn, The “Streamer” presented to the Battalion by the United States is now in the Soldiers Museum, Gloucester.