Description
General Service Medal 1962, bar Northern Ireland, 24753023 Lance Corporal P.A. Wightman, Cheshire Regiment.
Officially impressed: “24753023 LCpl P A Wightman Cheshire”
Court mounted as worn on Firmin pin.
Service number corresponds to enlistment circa 1983-4.
A note with the medal states he was with “Recce Platoon” but no further information is available.
During “Operation Banner” in Northern Ireland, the Cheshire Regiment saw 8 operational tours.
Notably the 1st Bn Cheshires saw one tour around the time of his service, in Ballykelly from 5th March 1982 until 10th January 1984 as Resident Northern Ireland Battalion (an accompanied tour), seeing another posting later at Bessbrook in 1990 as ARB, most likely he was on the early tour in Ballykelly given his enlistment at this time.
Coming into the battalion at a rough time, recently on that same tour, 8 Soldiers from the Cheshire Regiment had been killed in the Droppin Well Bombing in Ballykelly, when a night club frequented by British Soldiers from the nearby Shackleton Barracks was attacked by a Time Bomb from the INLA.
