DAY 1 of Three-Day General Auction
Lot 246:
A General Service Medal 1918 (GVIR second type) with clasp ‘Bomb & Mine Clearance 1945-49’, named to: 19141842 Dvr E J Hassall R Sigs. This ULTRA-RARE clasp was awarded to service personnel engaged in post-war
clearance of UXB and mines within the UK . Only personnel actively involved in the actual removal and disposal of bombs and mines qualified and supporting staff were not included. It is not known how many of these clasps were awarded but it was probably not more than a few hundred. Driver Hassall of the Royal Signals was
probably employed either as a radio operator to the bomb disposal team or possibly as a water-jet operator. Either way, he would have been “in the hole with the bomb”
to qualify for this clasp. One notable recipient of this award was the legendry Colonel Stuart Archer GC, OBE,
ERD (late Royal Engineers) who was awarded the George Cross in 1941 for his outstanding, deliberate and sustained gallantry in defusing a number of highly dangerous unexploded German bombs. He is shown in the accompanying copy photograph in later life, wearing his medal group which includes the GSM 1918 with
the ‘Bomb & Mine Clearance 1945-48’ clasp, which he was awarded for his service as Officer Commanding No 12 Bomb Disposal Company, engaged in clearing the South Coast of mines after the end of the Second World War. Good Very Fine (GVF) condition.
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