Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria, to include the Brian Ritchie Collection (Part I)

A rare S.E. Asia 1945-46 operations O.B.E. group of eight awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel A. T. Scott, Indian Army

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Military) Officer’s 2nd type breast badge; India General Service 1936-39, 1 clasp, North West Frontier 1937-39 (Capt., 1-12 F.F.R.); 1939-45 Star; Burma Star; War Medal 1939-45, M.I.D. oak leaf; India Service Medal 1939-45; General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, S.E. Asia 1945-46 (Lt. Col., 3 Madras R.); Indian Independence Medal 1947, unnamed, the G.S.M. with officially corrected rank and initials, good very fine or better (8) £400-500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals from the collection of Angela and the late Douglas Bertram.

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O.B.E. London Gazette 28 November 1946:

‘For gallant and distinguished service in South-East Asia.’

Alastair Thame Scott, who was born in 1910, was commissioned into the Indian Army in the early 1930s.

A veteran of the North West Frontier operations 1937-39, he held senior command in the 1939-45 War, ultimately serving as a Lieutenant-Colonel and C.O. of the 1/3rd Madras Regiment in the advance through Burma in early 1945, when he was present at the crossing of the Irrawaddy that March, and in all of the fighting up to Paungga in the following month, including the capture of Point 1682, near Sabauk.

In November 1945, as part of the S.E. Asia operations against Indonesian terrorists, Scott was ordered with the 1/3 Madras Regiment to Sourabaya, and a gruelling series of patrols and engagements ensued, but often at great cost to the opposition. Indeed the regiment’s war diary has Scott reporting the demise of around 250 of the enemy in December 1945 alone, a tally that was no doubt substantially increased before he and his men were withdrawn in April 1946. His O.B.E. was gazetted several months later.