Active Service ?
| Mr.
burden; To ask the Secretary of State if he will list the criteria
for military campaigns to be classified as active service (32996)
Dr Reid; The definition of "on active service" is laid down by statute in the Service Discipline act. A force on active service is one engaged in operations against the enemy, or engaged elsewhere than in the United Kingdom in operations for the protection of life or property, or (subject to the provisions of the relevant section in the three acts) is in military occupation of a foreign country. In relation to a person, it means that he or she is serving in or with a force which is on active service. |
The
Secretary of State for Defense has stated that those soldiers shipped out
to the Canal Zone were merely there to take over from "Egyptian Labour"
that had vacated the Canal Zone on orders from Cairo, and to protect all
the Military installations from theft. All news of action was
dismissed and suppressed. With my Computer I have managed to get all the
inquiries re a medal for Canal Zone Service 1951-54 recorded on Hansard,
and would like to quote to you from these. A lot of the questions
asked came from the Labour benches, but this one is a Dandy, this time
it is a Conservative asking the question.
| Mr.
Michael Trend CBE MP Windsor, Conservative.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defense if he will assess the benefits of a Campaign medal to service personnel who served in the Suez Canal Zone between 1951 and 1954. Answer
from the Labour benches.
|
It has recently been brought to light that according to official sources in over three years of active service 64 servicemen were killed, and 124 wounded. Of all the action that took place one of the finest regiments in the British Army played a major role, and I am talking about the Lancashire Fusiliers, with five killed, and 13 wounded in a major operation in Ismailia.
To get back the Active Service. As CSM's Clerk with 40 Company RASC, I must have typed at least 200 charge sheets, and had a fair knowledge of the MML. All these sheets, without exception included the letters WOAS (whilst on active service), typed before the description of the charge.
Our CO, Lt Col E E G Lucas on our arrival at the Column, informed us that we were now on active service, and would be treated accordingly.
I have a request here, and it is the most important part of this attempt for a medal, and that is we need a copy of a typed charge sheet from that era. If any of you have managed to get a hold of their military records, a copy of a charge sheet should also be available. We would like one of these that we can print. Now if the owner doesn't want his name shown we can block it out before publishing (copying) or if the owner doesn't give a s..t, we will go ahead. Unfortunately, I had a clean sheet (although I know of one senior NCO who would liked to have filled it).
Soldier Magazine published a letter and it was regarding the previous petition, and the following facts came to light, the large number of deaths and wounded, the fact that General Sir Brian Robertson, before moving back to the UK to take up a position with British Transport, asked that a medal be awarded to all ,those who served in the Canal Zone 1951-1954, he was vetoed by the two other diplomats, involved with the agreement signed with Nasser.
According
to this letter from Soldier magazine quote "the servicemen were merely
guarding installations against theft, that they were not on active service,
and that conditions of service were not as bad as other theaters, and casualties
were low" end of quote. I have a copy of that letter and it will
be sprinted in its entirety, in the very near future. Incidentally the
reason given for all this cover-up, that the Foreign Office didn't want
to hurt Nassers feelings. (Nasser had just recently presented
all the Egyptian Terrorists
with
a medal.)
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