Malay medals 50 years late
Several men in the Advertiser area are to be honoured for their service in Malaya more than 40 years ago.
The men will be presented with a Pingat Jasa Malaysia medal for their services after independence in Malaya, now Malaysia, in August 1957. They will attend a ceremony on April 2 in Grantham.
This is a medal directly from the Malaysian government in recognition for services to that nation rather than from the British.
Mr Richard Foster (70) of Alfred Avenue, Balderton, served with the RAF in Singapore between January 1958 and January 1960 as a senior aircraft engineer.
Mr Foster was at an RAF base at Changi, where there is now an international airport.
He applied for the award for service 18 months ago after noticing it mentioned in the Royal Air Forces Association magazine. He is also a member of the Malay and Borneo Veterans’ Association.
He said: “At the time, being a young man, I didn’t really think about the fact that we were helping with their independence.
“Thinking about it later, I believe we were helpful to them.”
“I didn’t really want to come home. I wasn’t married then and I found it a very nice place to be.
“Although it was hard work, you got used to that after a few weeks.”
Mr Richard Harcourt (68) of Lightfoot Close, Newark, was a radio technician with the RAF, serving at Butterworth in Northern Borneo in 1965-7.
He worked as part of a network communicating with aircraft and remote airfields. He said that because he was out there after Malaya became independent, he saw very little trouble.
Retired college lecturer Mr Geoffrey Malthouse (63) of The Paddocks, Newark, served in Kuching, in Borneo, in 1965-6.
He also served in Singapore in 1967.
He was a corporal helping to provide logistic support to the operations in Borneo.
Many of the soldiers used parasols because it could be as hot as 120F in the shade.
He said that when he was once approached in Kuching market by people saying that the British should leave he was hurt because he felt they had done a good job there.
Because he was not a fighting soldier, he stayed in the middle east for more than three months.
Mr Barrie Picker (69) of Coleridge Road, Balderton, will also receive a medal for his service in Johore Bahru, in Northern Malaya, between April, 1961 and November, 1962.
The presentation of the medals will take place at Prince William of Gloucester Barracks in Grantham.
To be eligible Servicemen must have been stationed in Malaysia, Singapore or Northern Borneo for at least three months since independence in August, 1957, and August of 1966.
The medals, being handed out 50 years after hostilities ceased, represent official recognition from the Malay government.
They will be pinned to around 200 chests by the defence attache to the Malaysian High Commission, Colonel Tajri Alwi.
The event is being organised by the Grantham and District Branch of the National Malay and Borneo Veterans’ Association, whose president is the ex-England rugby international, Flight-lieutenant Rory Underwood who is half Malayan.
Its secretary, Mr George Reeve (71) of Grantham but formerly of Coddington, who was a non-commissioned officer working on special projects in Singapore and Borneo, said that the conflict was the first time that the battle for hearts and minds, often mentioned in today’s conflicts, was tried and won.
He said that soldiers rarely wore helmets, to appear friendly, or sunglasses, so those that they were speaking to could see their eyes.
Mr Reeve said the jungles were often impenetrable and patrols had to be dropped in from the air or ferried on boats.
He said that it was an experience of a lifetime.
More than 200 veterans received medals at a ceremony in Lincoln this week.
