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GROUPS AND SINGLE DECORATIONS FOR GALLANTRY
Sold by order of the recipient
1252
“I’m not exaggerating, there were hundreds of rounds coming close to all of us on any given day. Hundreds... You
wouldn’t be able to count the number of times you could have died.”
The superb Conspicuous Gallantry Cross group of five awarded to Lance Corporal Justin R. Thomas, 40 Commando,
Royal Marines who was awarded the first C.G.C. of the Iraq War for his extreme bravery in a commando attack in the
early days of the campaign - pinned down by hostile fire and with many of his comrades in exposed positions, he ran
from a place of comparative safety and climbed onto an open top vehicle where he manned the mounted machine
gun, single-handedly returning a heavy weight of sustained fire for a continuous period of nearly 15 minutes whilst
small arms and rocket propelled grenades landed all around him - a chapter detailing his exploits appears in the book,
‘In Foreign Fields’
CONSPICUOUS GALLANTRY CROSS, E.II.R., reverse officially inscribed ‘P055390C Mne J R Thomas, RM’ and dated ‘2003’;
GENERAL SERVICE 1962, 1 clasp, Northern Ireland (Mne J R Thomas, P055390C RM); OPERATIONAL SERVICE MEDAL 2000, 1 clasp,
Afghanistan (Mne J R Thomas P055390C RM); IRAQ 2003, clasp, 19 Mar to 28 Apr 2003 (Mne J R Thomas P055390C
RM); JUBILEE 2002, mounted loose style as worn; together with Royal Mint case of issue for first and named card boxes of
issue for the four campaign medals, nearly extremely fine (5) £40000-60000
The Conspicuous Gallantry Cross was instituted as a result of the 1993 review of the British honours system and is second in seniority
only to the Victoria Cross. The C.G.C. was awarded for the first time as a result of the Bosnian War in 1995 and to date 33 such awards
have been made, including one awarded collectively to the Ulster Defence Regiment. During the Iraq War the C.G.C. was awarded on
13 occasions, Lance Corporal Thomas’ C.G.C. being the first such award of the war. The C.G.C offered here is believed to be the only
example to have appeared on the market to date.
C.G.C. London Gazette 31 October 2003. The original recommendation states: ‘Lance Corporal Thomas deployed on Op Telic as a
GPMG section commander in Manoeuvre Support Group of 40 Commando, Royal Marines. Despite his lack of formal command
training, his leadership in combat has been of the highest order. Yet it as an individual act of immense bravery that stands him out from
his contemporaries as worthy of lasting recognition.
On 30 March [2003], a Commando attack was mounted against an enemy in battalion strength in the Abu-al-Khasib area near Basrah.
Lance Corporal Thomas’ troop was tasked with securing a key junction on the vulnerable western flank. After initially good progress, it
was just after first light when they were ambushed in the open by continual volleys of RPG and small arms fire from a well disguised
enemy position in the cover of date palms some 250 metres away. This initial contact lasted three hours during which the troop
managed to extract safely to a reorganisation location ready to meet and brief reinforcements from 42 Commando.
www.dnw.co.uk
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