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Auction: 18003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 524

(x) Three: Captain W. A. Heath, M.C., Royal Engineers, who was decorated for blowing up road junctions over the River Bresle and gaining precious time to facilitate the Allied withdrawal from France in 1940

1939-45 Star; Africa Star, clasp, 1st Army; War Medal 1939-45, good very fine (3)


Wallis Arnot Heath was born in Dundee, Scotland on 10 August 1916, the second son of Edwin Heath, a Director of the printing firm Valentine & Sons Ltd. Educated at Dundee High School, young Walles spent a period of time before the war working in the card and postcard department of his father's firm, gaining experience which would prove invaluable in the future; he enjoyed rugby and was a member of Panmure Rugby Club at a particularly fruitful time - 1936 and 1939 the team won the Midlands Sevens and also the North of Scotland Knockout Cup in from 1937-39.

On 28 May 1938, Wallis was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in the 51st Highland Divisional Engineers, Territorial Army. He embarked with the 51st Division from Southampton for Le Havre in January 1940, as part of the British Expeditionary Force, and was stationed to the south, in front of the Maginot Line, during what became known as the 'Phoney War'.

With the German invasion of France and the Low Countries on 10 May 1940, the B.E.F. advanced into Belgium to meet the advancing German forces. The 51st were not part of this force, but in response to the rapid German advance they were pulled back to form a defensive line along the Somme where they were attached to the French Tenth Army. The River Bresle had for centuries served as a natural boundary between powerful and often antagonistic political entitities, including the Roman provinces of Belgian Gaul and Lyonnais Gaul, and it was here that Wallis won his Military Cross (London Gazette 18 October 1940, refers). The recommendation states:

'On the River Bresle on the 8 June 1940, 2nd Lieutenant Heath and four other ranks remained under enemy fire until the last of the allied troops had passed the barricades. In spite of heavy enemy fire they then went forward and blew up several road junctions, thereby holding up the enemy advance. 2nd Lieutenant Heath carried out his duties under extreme difficulties with great confidence and determination, at grave risk.'

Fortunate to escape the encirclement at St.Valery, where approximately 10,000 men of the 51st were taken prisoner, Wallis got back home via Le Havre. Returning to Scotland, he was posted to 237th (Dundee) Company, R.E., and became engaged to Miss Jane Gray of Newlands, Glasgow. He was invested with the M.C. by the King at Buckingham Palace in March 1941, his sister and fiancée accompanying him to the ceremony; Wallis would marry Jane at the Belhaven Hotel, Glasgow in July.

Wallis next served in North Africa and was second in charge of the company which built the first Bailey bridge to be used in combat, at Medjez el Bab in Tunisia. Captured in an ambush on 29 November 1942, he was sent to Oflag VIII F prisoner of war camp which was located in a former Benedictine Abbey at Wahlstatt, before transferring to Oflag 79 at Waggum in the heart of Germany; it was here that Wallis used his skills gleaned from Valentine & Sons in the successful production of escape maps. Together with fellow prisoners, he helped set up a secret press which produced 3000 coloured silk escape maps using a book binding machine, ground-down lavatory tiles and boiled margarine. The creativity of the men extended to further utilising Red Cross jelly, oak floorboards, and the pitch from between the flagstones in the camp.

After the war Wallace returned to Valentine & Sons and became the works manager. He continued in the printing trade, taking up an appointment as General Manager in Birmingham in 1961, before retiring to St. Andrews in 1975. He died in April 2003, aged 86.

Sold with a quantity of original documentation, including the recipient's warrant of appointment to the rank of 2nd Lieutenant, dated 20 May 1938; a typed War Office letter to Capt. W. A. Heath, M.C., 237th Fd. Coy, R.E., dated 6 October 1942; contemporary typed M.C. citation and Oflag VIII P.O.W. card with portrait photograph.


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Sold for
£250