Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Five: Company Quarter Master Sergeant T. Bayly, 1st Battalion, Middlesex Regiment, who was taken prisoner of war by the Japanese at the Fall of Hong Kong, 25 December 1941

1939-45 Star; Pacific Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Army L.S. & G.C., G.VI.R., 2nd issue, Regular Army (6198031 Sjt. T. Bayly. Mx) good very fine (5) £260-£300

Thomas Bayly was born in Aldershot, Hampshire in November 1909. He was the son of Colour Sergeant R. J. Bayly, Middlesex Regiment, who was taken prisoner of war by the Germans at Mons, 23 August 1914. A true ‘Die Hard’ family, Bayly’s father named the family residence ‘Albuhera’ on the Salisbury Road, Amesbury, Wiltshire.

Bayly attested for the Army in September 1927, and was posted for service with the 1st Battalion, Middlesex Regiment as part of the Hong Kong Garrison. He was serving there when war broke out in the Pacific, 8 December 1941, and was taken prisoner of war by the Japanese at the Fall of Hong Kong, 25 December 1941. He was interned in the following prisoner of war camps: Shampshuipo, Hong Kong, December 1941 - December 1943; Nagoya, Japan, December 1943 - June 1945 and Toyama, Japan, June 1945 until liberation. Bayly died in Bournemouth, Dorset in 1985.