Description
General Service Medal 1918, EIIR, bar Malaya, General Service Medal 1962, bar Borneo, 21147222 Rifleman Budhiraj Rai, 1st 7th Duke of Edinburgh’s Own Gurkha Rifles.
GSM Malaya officially impressed: “21147222 Rfn. Budhiraj Rai. 7th G.R.”
GSM Borneo officially impressed: “21147222 Rfn. Budhiraj Rai. 1/7 GR”
Good combination showing service in 2 campaigns both with the 7th Gurkha Rifles.
Going into the Malayan Emergency, the 7th Gurkha Rifles would spend almost 12 years there deploying to “conduct jungle operations against an often elusive foe.”
By the end of the conflict, the 7th Gurkha Rifles were awarded with the approval of a Royal Title for the Regiment in 1959 in honour of the Duke of Edinburgh as a signal recognition of its outstanding record in Malaya and an acknowledgement of its distinguished service in the 2 World Wars. The Regiment was then on known by its full title of the “7th Duke of Edinburgh’s Own Gurkha Rifles.”
A few years later, and sporting their new Royal Title, the regiment was deployed for service in the Borneo (Indonesian) Confrontation of 1963-66.
The recent “Brunei Revolt was a prelude to a war between an expansionist Indonesia and the new Malaysian Federation backed by Britain and the Commonwealth which is known as the Borneo Confrontation.
Fought largely in the mountains and swamps of Sabah and Sarawak and without much publicity it lasted from 1963 to 1966. Both Battalions of the 7th Gurkha Rifles were heavily involved in the campaign in which the reputation of the Gurkhas as supremely able jungle soldiers was enhanced.”
Notably during their service in Borneo the 7th Gurkhas were deployed on “Operation Claret” the code name given for “Behind Enemy Lines” highly secretive operations from July 1964 to July 1966 from Sarawak and Sabah across the border in Indonesian Kalimantan.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Claret
It took until 1974 for the British Government to acknowledge the existence of these operations, for Australia they held off until 1996, officially speaking the casualties were being reported as occurring in “East Malaysia” rather than reporting they had crossed the border, their objective was to “Keep Indonesian Forces off balance”, fortunately for the British they had experienced Gurkhas who had years of expertise in Jungle Warfare, and did not need further specialised training like their British Army counterparts.
