A fascinating India General Service Medal 1908-1935, 1 Clasp: North West Frontier 1930-31 awarded to Private H. Percival, Border Regiment who saw service during the Red Shirt Rebellion on the North West Frontier in the period from 23rd April 1930 to 22nd March 1931 and would later see service as part of 185 (Special) Tunnelling Company, Special Tunnelling Engineers during the Second World War, a unit that would have been involved in the construction of Operational Bases for the Home Guard Auxiliary Units that would have been used in the case of a German invasion.
India General Service Medal 1908-1935, GVR, 1 Clasp: North West Frontier 1930-31; (3593516 PTE. H. PERCIVAL. BORD. R.)
Condition: Nearly Extremely Fine
Awarded to Private (No. 3593516) Howard Percival, Border Regiment who saw service during the Red Shirt Rebellion on the North West Frontier in the period from 23rd April 1930 to 22nd March 1931.
Percival would later serve during the Second World War, being attached to H.Q. Special Tunnelling Engineers on 25th September 1942, and 185 (Special) Tunnelling Company on 2nd December 1942. He would then be delegated to Class IV of the Territorial Army and placed in Reserve for an indefinite period on 1st December 1943.
Special Tunnelling Companies’ work in building operation bases for the Home Guard:
In August 1940, the HQ of the Auxiliary Units began its move out of London, first to Northgate House, London Street, Farringdon (shared with the RASC Company of the 1st Armoured Brigade) and after 20 August to Coleshill House, Highworth, Wiltshire, a move which coincided with a significant shift in direction for the organisation. This phase ended with the departure of Colonel Gubbins and Major Wilkinson to SOE in November 1940.
From 15th August, the concept of village cells was changed to form well-armed patrols of six to eight men operating from hidden Operational Bases, with a chance of survival that could now hopefully be measured in terms of a couple of weeks rather than a couple of days. This followed the precedent by Fleming’s earlier changes to the XII Corps Observation Unit. The Auxiliary Units HQ was taking on a distinct identity of its own and was moving further away from the concept inherited from the HDS. This was the point at which Major Wilkinson lost faith in the organisation as it moved from its origin as a secret guerilla force to a much more military commando arm of the Home Guard.
The work of constructing the new Operational Bases (the term ‘hide’ was rejected for being too suggestive of a defensive role) was usually carried out by army engineering units brought in from a considerable distance in order to improve security, although they might be based in the area for a year or more and be billeted in local houses. Some of the work of constructing the Operational Bases (OBs) in Northern and Southern Command was carried out by 184 Special Tunnelling Company of the 4th Special Tunnelling Engineers, whose template plan for an OB has survived, as well as their detailed schedule of works on building Auxiliary Units OBs during 1942, in their war diary. Unfortunately, during their work in north-east England in October 1942 there was a security leak and a pegging-out plan for the local OB was left on one of their billets at Wheatley Hill, County Durham, it was found by local police and returned to the Chief Engineers, IX Corps. The fall-out from this embarrassing incident is not known!
