An Important Collection of Awards to the SAS and Special Forces

A rare campaign group of three awarded to Sergeant R. A. Cooper, Suffolk Regiment and Special Air Service Regiment, who was twice Mentioned in Despatches and later served with the Australian S.A.S.

General Service 1918-62, G.VI.R., 2 clasps, Malaya, Arabian Peninsula, with M.I.D. oak leaf emblem (22562759 Pte. R. A. Cooper, Suffolk) minor correction to service number; General Service 1962, 1 clasp, Borneo, with M.I.D. oak leaf emblem (22562759 Sgt. R. A. Cooper, SAS); Regular Army L.S. & G.C., E.II.R. (22562759 Sgt. R. A. Cooper, SAS) nearly extremely fine (3)

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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M.I.D. London Gazette 21 August 1959. ‘In recognition of gallant and distinguished services in the Arabian Peninsula: A/Cpl. R. A. Cooper, Suffolk, permanently attached 22 S.A.S. Regt.’

M.I.D. London Gazette 13 December 1966. ‘In recognition of gallant and distinguished services in the Borneo Territories during the period 24th December 1965 to 23rd June 1966: Sergeant Richard Alec Cooper, Special Air Service Regiment.’

Richard Alec Cooper was born in Ipswich, Suffolk, in 1933 and enlisted into the Suffolk Regiment on 24 July, 1951. He joined the Special Air Service Regiment in April 1955, and served with them continuously until his discharge from the British Army on 29 June 1970. His Certificate of Service notes that he was ‘a very able boat specialist and diver - a highly competent supervisor. Sgt Cooper has served continuously with the Special Air Service for the last 15 years. During this time hardly one year has past (sic) in which he has not been in action. He has seen active service in Malaya, Borneo, Oman and the Aden Protectorate including the Radfan...and has on two occasions been Mentioned in Despatches for gallant and distinguished conduct.’ From August 1972 until February 1973, Cooper served in the Australian Army on ‘Regimental and Special Air Service Trooper duties with Special Air Service unit 5 months’.

Other than employment as a security officer, quite what Cooper got up to after leaving the Australian S.A.S. is shrouded in mystery, but it is believed that it is he who is alluded to in the following passage taken from Who Dares Wins, The Mercenaries 1962-78:

‘At the other extreme was a team of a dozen former SAS troopers and NCO’s recruited in 1978 to trigger off a coup in the African state of Togo, of which assassinating the head of state was an integral part. The scheme misfired after discreet but effective intervention by MI6 and the Foreign Office. The retired Canadian officer at the centre of this plot appears to have had no special forces background himself, but, like others, he was attracted by the reputation of the SAS for efficiency in such matters. His team leader, a respected SAS veteran of Malaya and Borneo, twice Mentioned in Dispatches, and an ex-Watchguard employee, was recalled from Africa where, he insisted, he had been on business in Ghana.’

The group is sold with two original letters of congratulation for his Borneo ‘mention’, his Army Certificate of Education, a group photograph and copies of his British and Australian Certificates of Service.