Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A post-war B.E.M. group of nine awarded to Sergeant J. F. Dix, Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire Regiment

British Empire Medal, (Military) G.VI.R., 1st issue (5885246 Sgt. James F. Dix, B. & H. Regiment); 1939-45 Star; Africa Star; Italy Star; France and Germany Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Palestine 1945-48 (5885246 Sjt. J. Dix, Bedfs. & Herts.); Efficiency Medal, G.VI.R., Militia (5885246 Cpl. J. Dix, Bedfs. & Herts.), polished, plated and lacquered, thus nearly very fine (9) £400-500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals to Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiments.

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B.E.M. London Gazette 9 June 1949.

James F. “Jimmy” Dix served in the Northampton and Suffolk Regiments prior to becoming a “Bedford” and, according to a regimental obituary ‘was one of a group of splendid soldiers of the Regiment who volunteered for services with the Army Commandos’, his friend, Sergeant John Leech, doing likewise. The latter won an M.M. and Bar with No. 3 Commando, and his obituary states that ‘on both occasions he was hit, his friend Jimmy Dix carried him from the battlefield’. So strong evidence of Dix having seen much action with the Commando, from special operations mounted in North Africa, Sicily and Italy, through to the D-Day landings and beyond.

Post-war, in Egypt, Dix acted as Colour-Sergeant in the 1st Battalion’s Colour Party at the time of the Coronation in 1953, in addition to being awarded the B.E.M. in the Birthday Honours List in 1949. And following his retirement he remained a devoted member of the Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire Regimental Museum Committee, a task he shared with his old friend John Leech. Latterly an In-pensioner at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, he died in July 2002.