For me, the stories are far more interesting than the medals, but often now it is sadly only the medals that survive to tell the tale and everything else has been lost or scattered.
I took the plunge last weekend and brought a group of medals that were awarded to Corporal Bertie Akehurst of 1st Suffolk Regiment. They are nothing too special; a standard Second World War NW Europe set of four: 1939-45 Star, France and Germany Star, Defence Medal and the War Medal, but what intrigued me was a 2nd Battalion, Suffolk Regiment sports medallion that was included with the medals. It inferred that he might have had pre-war service with the Second Battalion.
After spending a couple of hours leafing back through old Regimental Gazettes, the story of his service began to emerge and it was an interesting one.
Born in 1909, Bertie enlisted into the Suffolk Regiment in 1927 aged eighteen. He signed on for twelve years service, seven regular, 5 on the reserve and was to spend almost all of that seven years with the 2nd Battalion in India. He was just a normal soldier, he didn’t do anything wild or glamorous. He never got into trouble, he was just a ‘steady old file’ who could be relied upon to do what he was told. He entered a novices athletics race in 1931 at Madras and seems to have done well, but sport didn’t appeal to be for him and he didn’t appear in the sports write-ups any time afterwards. However he felt it important enough to keep the medallion he won for it.
He left the Regiment in 1935 having served his seven years with the Colours (plus a little extra as he was awaiting a ship home from India (soldiers had to wait until the ‘Trooping Season’ - the time of year when troopships would operate to come home) so by February 1939, his time on the reserve had expired and he was no longer eligible for recall to the Colours in times of emergency.
However, the Military Service Act of 1941, brought him back into the fold and aged 33, he found himself again serving with the Suffolk Regiment. He gained his stripes swiftly the following year - no doubt his previous unblemished service helped with that, and he went onto serve with 17 Platoon, ‘D’ Company throughout the NW Europe Campaign, landing with them on D-Day and going right through to VE-Day without being wounded.
He left the Battalion in Belgium in September 1945 to be drafted to the DCLI (Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry) for the last few weeks of his service. His medals never appear to have been worn, being left in their original box of issue with his regimental sports medal and a couple of plastic NAAFI canteen tokens - no doubt found in a pocket afterwards, but tragically he died in 1963, aged just fifty-three. He never appears to have married, but my hope is that somewhere I can locate a photograph of him to put with his medals. If anyone out there can help me, please do get in contact. I would be most grateful.
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