Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

“I am very proud to have received the C.G.C. but if I hadn’t received anything it wouldn’t have bothered me in the slightest. You don’t do things for medals, you do them for your mates.”

The exceptional ‘Afghanistan 2006’ C.G.C. group of five awarded to Corporal of Horse Andrew Radford, ‘D’ Squadron, Life Guards, Household Cavalry Regiment, formerly Royal Engineers, who served in the same squadron as HRH Prince William of Wales and was decorated for his ‘almost superhuman effort’ in dashing forward and rescuing a seriously wounded comrade, whilst under sustained enemy fire from AK-47’s. machine guns and rocket propelled grenades

Conspicuous Gallantry Cross, E.II.R., reverse officially inscribed ‘25068319 Cpl A G Radford, LG); General Service 1962, 1 clasp, Northern Ireland (25068319 L Cpl A G Radford, RE); Iraq Medal, with clasp (25068319 L Cpl A G Radford, LG); Operational Service Medal, clasp, Afghanistan (25068319 L Cpl A G Radford, LG); Jubilee 2012; together with N.AT.O. Medal, clasp, ISAF, the O.S.M. with edge bruising, otherwise generally nearly extremely fine (6) £80000-100000

The Conspicuous Gallantry Cross was instituted as a result of the 1993 review of the British honours system and is second in seniority only to the Victoria Cross. The C.G.C. was awarded for the first time as a result of the Bosnian War in 1995 and to date 50 such awards have been made, including one awarded collectively to the Ulster Defence Regiment. Two other awards of the C.G.C. have been made to members of the Household cavalry, the best known of which is that awarded to Mick Flynn, C.G.C., M.C., author of the two best-selling books, Bullet Magnet and Trigger Time. Flynn served in the same squadron as Radford and was awarded his M.C. for the same action as which Radford gained the award of his C.G.C., the whole incident being fully recounted in his books.

C.G.C. London Gazette 15 December 2006. The original recommendation states:

‘On the morning of 1 August 2006, Lance Corporal of Horse Radford’s Troop was ordered to approach the town of Musa Qal’eh, in order to provide a surveillance capacity to cover the extraction of the Pathfinder Platoon and the resupply of the Danish Squadron based there. As his troop moved through a small village to the south of Musa Qal’eh, the lead two vehicles were ambushed by Taliban forces with a combination of Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) fire, heavy machine guns and a large improvised Explosive Device (IED). One of the vehicles was destroyed in the initial attack, killing three of its four occupants immediately and continued to burn fiercely. The second vehicle and its crew managed to extract out of the ambush albeit under accurate fire from the RPG’s, having to abandon their vehicle in the process.

Radford’s vehicle was approximately 70 meters to the west of the contract point. On seeing movement to the south of the destroyed vehicle, Radford’s vehicle commander observed an individual lying on the ground by the burning Spartan: it was ascertained that the individual was the driver of the destroyed vehicle, Trooper Compton. At this stage, the crew of the Scimitar that had been attacked in the ambush were extracting back towards Radford’s vehicle, still under constant enemy fire mainly from RPG’s. Without hesitation or prompting from the officer commanding his vehicle, and seeing the imminent danger that Compton was in, Radford dismounted from his vehicle and under sustained enemy fire from the Taliban fighters with total disregard for his own safety, ran into the ambush killing area towards gravely injured Compton.

Entering into a scene of utter devastation and horror, with the dead bodies of the crewman lying burnt beyond recognition and dismembered by the IED blast, Radford reached Compton and assessed his injuries (Compton had sustained 70 per cent burns to his body and a shattered leg). Still under close range fire from the Taliban, Radford realised that Compton needed to be extracted immediately if he was going to survive. Having been joined by the commander of the abandoned Scimitar (Corporal of Horse Flynn), Compton was lifted out of the ambush area, with Flynn giving covering fire, and made it back up a steep incline to the relative safety offered by his armoured vehicle. Consequently, the grievously injured Compton was then extracted westwards to the Squadron ambulance and subsequently to life saving treatment.

Throughout the incident, Lance Corporal of Horse Radford showed a complete disregard for his own safety and acted completely on his own initiative, a father of four young children, he deliberately put himself in harm’s way to rescue a fellow solider. He showed an almost superhuman effort to rescue Trooper Compton and extract him uphill the 70 metres back to his own armoured vehicle under challenging conditions. This feat was all the more remarkable as at the time he was under fire from a mixture of AK-47s, machine guns and RPG’s. At no point did he hesitate to think of himself, utterly focused on saving his fellow comrade in trouble, who had suffered horrendous injuries. Without doubt, his immediate action saved Trooper Compton’s life. It is this act of selflessness, conspicuous gallantry and bravery in the face of a well co-ordinated and sustained enemy ambush that merits public recognition.’

A chapter comprising a 15 page interview with Lance Corporal of Horse Radford appears in the book, In Foreign Fields, by Dan Collins, from which the following in relation to the action for which he was awarded the C.G.C. is extracted:

‘The whole of Musa Qala was infested with Taliban and they were determined to retake the town. Afghans suspected of collaborating with the British had been publicly hanged along entry routes and huge caches of weapons and ammunition were being built up. On the morning of 1 August 2006, the Troop moved through a small village to the south of Musa Qala. As they reached the middle of it, the lead two vehicles were ambushed by Taliban forces with a combination of RPG fire, heavy machine guns and a large IED.

“ There were three vehicles within the ambush area - two vehicles in front of mine - and probably another three behind, with others further back still. Probably 12 vehicles in total. It was a well-planned ambush. In fact, from their point of view, it was perfect. They knew it was our only route through the area and they also knew we were in the area because we’d had a mine strike the night before and one of our vehicles had been taken out - luckily, no-one was injured.

At the time because we didn’t think the threat level was that high, I had my head out of the turret scanning my arcs. On a normal day-to-day basis, when you don’t feel threatened, you stick your head out and have a look around. The commander was to my side, and the driver down below, also open. We’d stopped short of this village a couple of minutes previously and the commanders had had a brief on what we were going to do - I think it was simply who was going to go where through this built up area. It was a series of compounds, houses with walls going around the garden. Maybe five or six of them, but with more than one house to a compound. From memory, they were on our side of the ditch, and there was a bridge across the ditch.

We drove through, and almost immediately the first vehicle got hit. We saw the first RPG hit him, and heard the vehicle commander, CoH Mick Flynn, on the net, saying, ‘Contact. RPGs.’ He’s not so much talking to us, because we can see what’s happened - they were probably only 50 metres ahead of us. Basically, it’s an instant heads-up for HQ, to let them know we’ve been attacked. His mic button stuck so we could hear his whole conversation and everything that was going on in his wagon. He was really out of breath, trying to tell the driver where to go, and talking to the gunner, telling him what to do. They decided to move back through the ambush area because they were isolated where they were and they were still being engaged with machine guns and RPGs to the front.

They took a second RPG as they were trying to fight their way out, though we had reversed out of the line of sight by the time that one hit. There’s no point in trying to drive through if you aren’t in the ambush yet. Then the second vehicle, a Spartan, got hit by a huge IED. I saw a massive, literally huge, fireball and then a billowing cloud of smoke and dust.

By this stage, we’d moved forward again, with other vehicles, and we were putting down maximum fire power, trying to get the first vehicle out. We knew that the second vehicle had gone. There was no way that anyone could have survived that blast. It was on fire, well ablaze, and the whole of the back had been blown off. They’re all my close colleagues in there, as they are in the Scimitar, but you can’t allow yourself to think about that just at that moment. It’s like, ‘Forget that for now, put it to one side, our job is to try to help the first vehicle to get out.’

There were Taliban with machine guns about 75 metres ahead, and to the right there was a little wooded area where the RPGs had been fired from and where we later discovered the IED has been initiated from, by command wire. There were probably only about three or four enemy in each of the two positions, but we were in such a small area that that was enough. Luckily, we had left two of our own vehicles short of our position before we were driving in, to cover us. They were on high ground and had a good view into the town and beyond. It turned out the Taliban had held a number of motorbikes and Toyota Hilux-type vehicles, all kitted out with men with RPGs and AKs, in reserve. They had tried to come around the right hand side and take us all out but our lads had wiped them out.

We’d been hearing all the chat in the front vehicle, as I say, and it suddenly all went quiet. We couldn’t see them for the smoke and flames from the Spartan, so I just presumed that they had gone as well. I just kept firing while my commander assessed what was the best thing to do. I remember thinking about my family, and especially my little daughter who I’d only seen for an hour or two. I didn’t want to die here and have her never know her dad. I think it spurred me on. As soon as you think about your kids...well, you’ll do anything to stay with them.

Then something sort of caught my eye. I noticed someone moving around at the base of the wooded area. We assumed it was one of the enemy at first, but when we looked really closely we could just make out that it was one of our boys. As soon as I realised he was one of ours I knew I had to go and get him. There was no way that we would leave him there. No way. The Taliban are evil, and they don’t treat prisoners well at all. We couldn’t drive the vehicle closer, because the threat was too high in that situation. The vehicle attracts rounds, you don’t know whether there are more IEDs in the area, it’s just too dangerous.

My boss, Lt Tom Long, turned to me and I think he was about to say, ‘One of us is going to have to go and get him,’ but I’d actually already started putting my helmet and webbing on. I jumped off and just legged it down towards him. As I was running, there was a lot of incoming fire, I don’t know where from because the noise was so great you couldn’t tell the direction. I was putting as many rounds down into the trees as I could with my SA80, away from the lad and off to the side, just suppressing fire. I didn’t stop to aim. I couldn’t have stood around.

I am very proud to have received the CGC, but if I hadn’t received anything it wouldn’t have bothered me in the slightest. You don’t do things for medals, you do them for your mates. I’d like to think that if that had been me lying there someone would have come and got me. In the Household Cavalry, we are all very close and we look after each other and look out for each other. Mick Flynn got a Military Cross and he’d already got a CGC from Iraq too, so there’s plenty of braver blokes than me out there. And it was down to the efforts of every man involved that day that the Taliban didn’t kill any more men than they did.” ‘


Sold with the following original documentation and other artefacts:

i) Ten letters of congratulation written to the recipient after the announcement of the award of his C.G.C., including letters from, General The Lord Guthrie, GCB, LVO, OBE, Colonel The Life Guards; Lieutenant General J. N. R. Houghton, CBE, Chief of Joint Operations; Major General A. R. D. Shirreff, CBE, Colonel Commandant, Royal Armoured Corps; Brigadier M. A. P. Carleton-Smith, OBE, H.Q. 16 Air Assault Brigade; Brigadier D. J. Rutherford-Jones, ADC, Director Royal Armoured Corps; Lieutenant Colonel H. R. D. Fullerton, Life Guards.

ii) A named group photograph of the Formation Reconnaissance Crew Commanders Course, 2nd July to 3rd August 2007, which includes both the recipient and HRH Prince William of Wales.

iii) Copy of the book, Home From War, by Martyn and Michelle Compton, the former being the soldier that Radford received his C.G.C. for rescuing. The book personally inscribed to recipient ‘For Andrew, You are an inspiration and I will remember your courage always. I am grateful for all that you have done and continue to do. With love and best wishes to you and your family always.’

iv) Copy of the book, Excellence in Action, A Portrait of The Guards, in which recipient is mentioned.

v) Copy of The Household Cavalry Journal 2009/10, which includes a photograph of the recipient meeting the then Primeminister, Gordon Brown.

vi) Copy of the Defence Focus Journal, dated September 2011, which includes a detailed interview with the recipient.

vii) Recipient’s beret complete with Life Guards cap badge.

viii) Brass 30mm shell case, being the first round fired by the recipient in Afghanistan.