An Important Collection of Awards to the SAS and Special Forces

A campaign pair awarded to Warrant Officer P. D. ‘Gypsy’ Smith, Special Air Service Regiment
General Service 1918-62, E.II.R., 2 clasps, Malaya, Arabian Peninsula (22718514 Tpr. P. D. Smith, S.A.S.); General Service 1962, 2 clasps, Borneo, South Arabia, unnamed, the second clasp loose on ribbon, nearly extremely fine (2)

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, An Important Collection of Awards to the SAS and Special Forces.

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Phillip ‘Gypsy’ Smith was born in June 1934 and was called up for National Service in September 1952, signing on for Regular Engagement the following month. He served in Malaya, Oman and Borneo with the S.A.S., latterly as Squadron Sergeant Major of “D” Squadron. According to the author of his obituary published in Mars and Minerva, he was not “the scruffiest SSM I ever knew, because he was always well dressed and with that dark, sleek hair swept back, he might even have been dapper. But Gypsy, deceptively big, was wonderfully casual and relaxed which might lead you to think he was scruffy. He ‘slouched’ in almost every situation I knew him and I thought this was a great asset! Whether putting out a demolitions ambush in the jungle (his speciality then) or greeting a senior officer, Gypsy could stroll into such a situation putting everyone at ease in a way no other man could imitate. Of course this irritated some senior officers but with his worldly-wise demeanour he also bemused them. They probably thought he was a strange SAS General in disguise so would say nothing, bit I’d catch them looking at him out of the corner of their eye, with a puzzled and worried look! Gypsy could do that to people. ...his other speciality, a demolitions ambush in Borneo, with its mix of Claymore mines and explosive devices all linked with white cordtex (the idiot British had not yet got round to manufacturing it in green), to all of which we had to painstakingly stick jungle moss, using tubes of commercial Gripfix under Gypsy’s eagle eye. He would then view it from all sides and lovingly launch into the best means of initiation - his favourite was an inviting branch, half-way up a slippery jungle slope, which some person in the enemy patrol was bound to grab.” The lot is sold with some further research including Statement of Service and some copy photographs. He is also extensively mentioned in the history of the SAS in the Borneo campaign.