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Auction: 18002 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 507

A Second World War B.E.M. group of five awarded to Sergeant A. E. Kempson, Welsh Guards, who was lucky to survive a close encounter with 'fanatical paratroops' in the Rhineland in March 1945 - his Bren gun was nearly cut in half by an enemy bazooka round

British Empire Medal, G.VI.R., Military Division (2734082 Sgt. Albert E. Kemspon); 1939-45 Star; France and Germany Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, right-hand side of B.E.M. suspension carriage sprung, otherwise good very fine (5)


B.E.M. London Gazette 8 June 1944. The original recommendation states:

'Sergeant Kempson joined the Regiment in 1935 and has served in the 1st Battalion since he left the Guards depot. He went to Gibraltar with the Battalion in 1939 and saw service in France in 1940. Throughout his services he served in the Prince of Wales's Company. In 1942 he was recommended for accelerated promotion from Lance-Sergeant to full Sergeant and this promotion was made. He is now Platoon Sergeant of No. 1 Platoon. Throughout his service he has proved himself to be a completely reliable man in every way and is an outstanding N.C.O. He is capable of commanding a platoon both in billets and in the field and is capable of carrying out the duties of C.Q.M.S. in which capacity he is employed in the absence of the C.Q.M.S. He is an extremely good influence in the Company and has boxed and played rugby for the Battalion.'

Alfred Edward Kempson was actively engaged in the North-West Europe operations, following the award of his B.E.M. Of particular note was his part in Operation "Veritable", when 1st Battalion, Welsh Guards was much to the fore in clearing enemy resistance in the Rhineland territory lying south of Nijmegen, between the Roer and Rhine, in February-March 1945. In one action, fought at Bonninghardt on 5 March 1945, the Welshmen came up against 'pockets of resistance consisting of fanatical paratroops', the regimental history further noting:

'Sergeant Albert Kempson, a Cardiff man, with a platoon of the Prince of Wales's Company, had his Bren gun nearly cut in half by a bazooka.'

This proved to be the Battalion's final action of the war; sold with copied research.


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Sold for
£650