Description
Africa General Service Medal, EIIR, bar Kenya, 22890851 Fusilier P. Dea, Royal Irish Fusiliers.
Officially impressed: “22890851 Fus. P. Dea. R. Ir. F.”
Service number corresponds to enlistment sometime around 1953-4.
The Royal Irish Fusiliers aka “The Faughs” landed in Mombasa on 30th January 1955, under command of Lt Col G.J. Hamilton DSO.
A Company was deployed to North Kinangop, and B Company to the South of Kinangop
The Royal Irish was active in conducting conuter-terrorist operations against the Mau Mau fighters who were busy raiding White Kenyan Owned Farms and properties as well as terrorising the black Kenyan workers.
The area they were deployed in, known as Kinangop Plateau had the nickname of the “White Highlands”, from the 1920s to 1940s onwards it was the location of a British Settler community which games notoriety as the “Happy Valley Set”, British immigrants came and bought land cheaply to raise cattle and sheep, many of them were rich and influential figures in society, who came after the 1929 Stock Market crash.
During the Mau Mau emergency from 1952-1960 the so called “White Highlands” was declared off limits to all non-Europeans. The surrounding areas, The Aberdares, Kinangop Plateau and Mount Kipiriri became targets of the Mau Mau fighters, and these regions were heavily enforced, “Any African found in the area could be legally shot on sight” as their presence their was “reasonable suspicion” that they could be Mau Mau Terrorists.
After almost a year in Kenya, the main body of the regiment left the country on 24th December 1955 on HMS Captain Cook, seeing further service in June 1956 in Wuppertal, Federal Republic of (West) Germany.
Some further detail can be found on the web-site of the Royal Irish, who have a small article about their service in Kenya, including a photograph of some soldiers from the Royal Irish giving members of the local Rift Valley Home Guard the chance to handle some modern weapons including a Vickers Machine Gun.
https://www.royal-irish.com/events/faughs-in-kenya
On one occasion a local British Farmer, Mr Walter James Weaver found a terrorist in the area and was murdered by him, whilst working with the Royal Irish Fusiliers patrolling the area, the newspapers reported:
“Mr Weaver was on his way to join a party of Royal Irish Fusiliers and was searching the field when he stumbled on a terrorist hiding. The terrorist shot Mr Weaver in the stomach at point plank range with a Service Rifles. He then ran off firing but the 2 Fusiliers with Mr Weaver fired after him and brought him down. Mr Weaver died as he was being taken to hospital.
The terrorist was identified as the self-styled “Major Kingari”, a bearded middle aged Kikuyu believed to have been leading a detachment of about 10 men from a large gang hidden in the thick bamboo forest on the edge of the Aberdare Mountains and overlooking the River Kinangop.
The Mount Kinangop area was one of the most Mau Mau infested areas of the colony, but Mr Weavers death is the first major incident there this year.
The last big gang attack occurred late last December, when terrorists attacked and burned down the farmhouse of Mr and Mrs Carnelly.”
