The superb Northern Ireland Operation Banner 2001, Afghanistan Operation Fingal 2002, Operation Herrick 6 2007 and Herrick 11 2009, Iraq Operation Telic 6 2005 group awarded to Corporal D. Grange-Cook, 1st Battalion, Royal Anglian Regiment - the ‘Vikings’. Present on a tour of Londonderry during 2001, he then deployed to Afghanistan during Operation Fingal at Kabul between March and June 2002. Involved in Operation Telic 6 in Iraq in 2005 when his Battlegroup was responsible for the Basra Rural South area of operations, he saw service with the Mortar Platoon. Grange-Cook was then involved in his battalion’s now famous tour of Afghanistan in Helmand Province during March to September 2007 as part of Operation Herrick 6. In this tour, well detailed in the book ‘Attack Red State’ in which Grange-Cook is mentioned, the operations were filmed for television and Cook formed a close bond with Ross Kemp during the making of the documentary ‘Ross Kemp in Afghanistan’. The fighting attracted much media attention due to the ferocity of the combat, with soldiers often having to resort to using bayonets. Indeed Kemp is quoted in The Sun: The first text Kemp received on Christmas Day [2007] wished him a happy day and added; "Isn't it nice we are still here to see it?" "Cookie, the soldier who sent me that text, was right next to me when we had a major contact with the Taliban.”’ Grange-Cook returned to Afghanistan during Operation Herrick 11 in 2009, when members of his battalion saw action guarding checkpoints in the Nad-e-Ali area.
Group of 4: Campaign Service Medal 1962, 1 Clasp: Northern Ireland; (25115881 PTE D GRANGE-COOK R ANGLIAN); Operational Service Medal 2000 for Afghanistan, with clasp: Afghanistan, early issue with officially impressed naming; (25115881 PTE D GRANGE-COOK R ANGLIAN); Iraq Medal 2003-2011, without clasp; (25115881 PTE D GRANGE-COOK R ANGLIAN); Jubilee Medal 2012; Nato Non Article 5 Medal for Afghanistan with ISAF clasp.
Condition: Nearly Extremely Fine.
Together with the following quantity of original documentation, photographs and ephemera:
Recipient’s Certificate of Service, and two page Record of Service.
Medical Record paperwork running to 22 pages.
Regimental Magazine for the tour of Londonderry conducted by the 1st Battalion, The Royal Anglian Regiment, between May 1999 and May 2001.
Regimental Magazine for the tour of Afghanistan conducted by the 1st Battalion, The Royal Anglian Regiment as part of Operation Fingal between March 2002 and June 2002.
A selection of original photographs and newspaper cuttings. Including two large group photograph of the Mortar Division Infantry Training Centre Warminster. Grange-Cook is identified in both. These are both folded.
Mortar Platoon Op Telic 6 flag. This a relatively rare souvenir.
An Iraqi banknote with the head of Sadam Hussein.
National Imagery and Mapping Agency Map of Kabul, revised to 1997, with hand drawn delineations and unit names for the various areas covered during the battalion’s participation in Operation Fingal between March 2002 and June 2002.
Daniel Grange-Cook, or 'Cookie' to his friends and comrades, was born in February 1982 and enlisted into the British Army on 14th May 2000 as a Private (No.25115881) with the Royal Anglian Regiment - the ‘Vikings’. Posted to the 1st Battalion, he then joined the battalion on Operation Banner out in Northern Ireland in Londonderry. The tour came to end in May 2001.
Grange-Cook then deployed with his battalion during Operation Fingal in Afghanistan as part of the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission to Kabul between March and June 2002. He then saw service in Iraq during Operation Telic 6 during 2005 where the battle group was responsible for the Basra Rural South area of operations. C (Essex) Company was detached to act as a Brigade Operations Company and was involved in several high-profile arrest operations.
Having qualified as a Mortar Platoon Commander, he was promoted to Lance Corporal on 26th March 2007, and then returned to Afghanistan and served with 'B' Company during the units famous tour of Helmand in 2007. From March to September 2007, as part of 12th Mechanised Brigade, 1st Battalion was deployed to Afghanistan as part of Operation Herrick 6.
Their operations were filmed for television and Cook formed a close bond with Ross Kemp during the making of the documentary ‘Ross Kemp in Afghanistan’. They were stationed in Helmand Province. The fighting attracted much media attention due to the ferocity of the combat, with soldiers often having to resort to using bayonets.
Indeed Kemp is quoted in The Sun: The first text Kemp received on Christmas Day [2007] wished him a happy day and added; "Isn't it nice we are still here to see it?" "Cookie, the soldier who sent me that text, was right next to me when we had a major contact with the Taliban.”’
Kemp had walked into what would be a costly tour for the unit, for it cost them 9 killed and 51 wounded in action having replaced the Parachute Regiment.
In a reported friendly fire incident, on 23 August 2007, one of a pair of United States Air Force F-15E fighter aircraft called in to support a patrol of the 1st Battalion in Afghanistan dropped a bomb on the same patrol, killing three men, and severely injured two others. It was later revealed that the British forward air controller who called in the strike had not been issued a noise-cancelling headset, and in the confusion and stress of the battle incorrectly confirmed one wrong digit of the co-ordinates mistakenly repeated by the pilot, and the bomb landed on the British position 1,000 metres away from the enemy. The coroner at the soldiers' inquest stated that the incident was due to "flawed application of procedures" rather than individual errors or "recklessness”.
Cook is also mentioned in Attack Red State, which gives any interested party a fine insight to the operations and conditions.
Grange-Cook was promoted to Corporal on 9th February 2009, and returned to Afghanistan for a third and final tour of Afghanistan in 2009 during Operation Herrick II. During this tour soldiers from the 1st Battalion also saw action guarding checkpoints in the Nad-e-Ali area. He was awarded the Jubilee Medal 2012, and was eventually discharged on 15th May 2012.
