Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A scarce Colonial Police Medal for Gallantry group of four awarded to British Constable T. J. Bamford, Palestine Police Force

Colonial Police Medal, G.VI.R., 1st issue, for Gallantry (Const. T. J. Bamford. Palestine Police.); General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Palestine (1049 T/2/B/Sjt. T. J. Bamford. Pal. Police.); Defence and War Medals 1939-45, very fine (4) £1,600-£2,000

C.P.M. for Gallantry London Gazette 3 January 1939:

‘For gallantry on 11th October, 1938, during an engagement against armed men on the Jerusalem-Hebron road.’

Thomas John Bamford joined the Palestine Police Force on 14 May 1937, after service in the Irish Guards. He saw service in the Northern Frontier Division commanded by Deputy District Superintendent C. V. S. Tessseyman, D.C.M., K.P.M. He was in a Section consisting of a British Sergeant in charge with three British Constables, two Arab Constables and two Jewish Constables. They were equipped with an open Ford pick-up, in the rear of which was a mounting for a Lewis gun. The men were in action almost daily against smugglers and hill gangs trying to infiltrate from Syria to Lebanon, while smaller gangs of men were intent on fleeing in the other direction after murdering policemen or soldiers in some skirmish elsewhere in Palestine, hoping to lie low until things quietened for them. All these types of criminals, when sighted, were engaged by vigilant patrols and many acts of gallantry can testify to the effectiveness of the Division. They became known as 'Tessy's Frontiersmen', and from the summer of 1938 to the summer of 1939 the Division collected a fine batch of decorations for gallantry. The frontier life continued in this fashion until World War II was declared, at which time the Arab Rebellion petered out. In 1940 the Division was disbanded and the personnel absorbed into other areas of the force. But ex-frontiersmen could always be seen to hold their heads high; they were a sort of inner clique within an already exclusive corps. To live and survive on the Northern Frontier from 1937 to 1940 earned them that privilege. By mid-1944, Bamford was the most senior British Head Constable in the newly formed Police Mobile Force (P.M.F.) (Source unknown).