Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A rare B.E.M. for gallantry pair awarded to Constable C. C. Cooper, Sussex Constabulary, late Royal Engineers, who was decorated for disarming an armed youth - he had earlier been severely wounded in the Radfan operations

British Empire Medal, (Civil) E.II.R., with gallantry emblem (Christopher Charles Cooper); General Service 1962, 1 clasp, Radfan (23860456 Spr. C. C. Cooper, R.E.), good very fine or better (2) £1600-1800

B.E.M. London Gazette 15 December 1970. The joint citation states:

‘Following a domestic dispute a youth armed himself with an automatic pistol, threatened to commit suicide, ran off to a copse and hid among the shrubs and trees. Sergeant Wheatley with Constable Cooper and other officers went to the copse. A shot was heard and the Sergeant saw the man waving a pistol about in his right hand. Wheatley drew near to the man and told him to put the gun down but he refused and threatened to kill the Sergeant if he came any nearer. Wheatley continued to approach and when about 10 yards away the man fired the pistol. The officer dived backwards and the man ran off. Constable Cooper then joined the Sergeant and they chased the man across a road. He was still waving the pistol about and threatening the officers. The man stood with his back to a fence pointing the pistol at Wheatley and Cooper. The officers walked towards him and he again fired the pistol. Wheatley and Cooper then rushed at him, grabbed hold of his hand holding the pistol and took it from him. The man was then secured.’

Christopher Charles Cooper, who was born in Brighton in July 1945, enlisted in the Royal Engineers in 1961. Trained in bomb and mine disposal demolition, he was posted to Aden with No. 3 Independent Field Squadron, where, on 13 September 1964, while on operations in the Radfan Mountains, he was severely wounded by a mine, suffering 40% burns and a fractured spine. Discharged as a result of his wounds, he joined the Sussex Constabulary in 1966, with whom he served in the C.I.D. and No. 6 Regional Crime Squad; sold with some photocopied newspaper reports regarding the incident, including a picture of the recipient outside Buckingham Palace on his investiture day.