*The Remarkable ‘Afghanistan 2009’ Conspicuous Gallantry Cross Group of 5 awarded to Lance-Bombardier Steven Gadsby, 40th Regiment (The Lowland Gunners) Royal Artillery. Serving on attachment as a Gunner and Signaller with 7 Platoon, 1st Battalion, The Welsh Guards, his unit came under heavy fire from Taliban insurgents during a routine foot patrol near Check Point Haji Alem in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, on 9 May 2009, where Gadsby, part of the Welsh Guards’ Fire Support Team, was at first unable to call in air support to come to their aid due to the lack of a single replacement cable for his satellite communications device when it became damaged in action. Almost completely surrounded, with part of his unit taking refuge in a nearby walled compound and the remainder seeking cover in a nearby irrigation ditch, Gadsby was recommended for the C.G.C. for evacuating his Platoon Commander, Lieutenant Mark Evison, Welsh Guards, who had been mortally wounded at the entrance to the sangar, through the length of a water filled-irrigation ditch and then, singlehandedly, across a completely exposed foot bridge while under heavy and sustained fire from all sides, running through a ‘storm of bullets’ and miraculously returning him to their compound. A brigade-level heavyweight boxer and ‘tremendously strong man’, Gadsby willingly risked his life for a second time, despite being physically exhausted, and returned, again, through the same concentrated fire, to assist a second wounded soldier from 7 Platoon who had been shot through both ankles, bringing him to the safety of their base very soon afterwards. On both occasions he chose the more dangerous route, completely exposed, in order to give his fellow soldiers the best possible chance of timely treatment, and indeed, survival. These events were later brought to light in the B.B.C. Documentary Series ‘Our War’ in the episode titled ‘The Lost Platoon’, which used live, ‘helmet camera’ footage taken throughout the patrol, and exceptionally, captured Gadsby in action during the very moments in which he earned his C.G.C. This documentary highlighted not only the exceptional sangfroid and camaraderie displayed by all ranks within 7 Platoon, but it also raised the numerous logistical difficulties, equipment shortages and lack of timely helicopter support experienced ‘on the ground’ by British and Allied soldiers in Afghanistan at that time, comprising: Conspicuous Gallantry Cross, E.II.R., reverse officially inscribed ‘Gnr S W Gadsby RA 25145681’ and officially dated ‘2010’, with original, fitted Royal Mint case of issue; Iraq 2003-11, no clasp (25145681 Gnr S W Gadsby RA); United Nations Medal for Cyprus; Operational Service Medal 2000, for Afghanistan, 1 clasp, Afghanistan (Gnr S W Gadsby RA 25145681); Jubilee 2012, in silver, unnamed as issued; These court-mounted for wear as a group of 5; Also offered with N.A.T.O. Medal 1994, Non-Article 5, single clasp, I.S.A.F. (International Security Assistance Force), unnamed as issued, with original box of issue and riband bar; Group toned, very light scuffing to reverse of first from court-mounting, otherwise good extremely fine (6). C.G.C.: London Gazette: 19 March 2010 – ‘for gallant and distinguished services in Afghanistan during the period 1st April to 30th September 2009.’ Also offered with Gadsby’s original map used in action recording the coordinates and location of the incident, the recipient’s original beret with Royal Artillery cap badge, original service helmet (as worn in action during the aforementioned events), rank insignia, copied ‘original’ citation for the C.G.C., a privately made display copy of his citation for the C.G.C., and a hardback copy of ‘Dead Men Risen: The Welsh Guards and the Defining Story of Britain’s War in Afghanistan’ by Toby Harnden. Full citation reads as follows: ‘Gunner Gadsby has been serving as a signaller with a Fire Support Team based in Check Point Haji Alem in the Nadi-e-Ali area. On the 9 May 09, Gunner Gadsby deployed from the base as part of a routine foot patrol. Around 500 metres into the patrol, insurgents contacted them with small arms fire. Two enemy firing points quickly became four. The Platoon found itself separated on either side of a piece of open ground. Worse was to follow when the Platoon Commander was hit and mortally wounded. Insurgents continued to flood the area, outflanking the ground callsign to fire from a fifth and then a sixth compound, before finally encircling them. The patrol fought back bravely and regrouped in a rally point from which they prepared to return to base. Gadsby was tasked to help with the extraction of the injured Platoon Commander. The going was extremely difficult due to the wide open fields – the only available cover was chest-high water-filled irrigation ditches. A tremendously strong man, Gadsby manned the stretcher the whole way back. The going was incredibly hard as they forced their way along the irrigation ditch, under fire throughout. 100 metres from the check point a significant hurdle awaited them in the form of an exposed track-canal-track obstacle and a piece of open ground leading up to the gate. This ground was in full view of the insurgents who were continuing to harass the patrol and were now firing liberally at this open ground. By now it was clear that the condition of the injured Platoon Commander was deteriorating rapidly – he urgently needed stability and proper medical care. To dip down into the cover of the canal which ran across the open ground would have provided cover from view and fire, but it would have taken more time.’ ‘Without a word, acting entirely on his own initiative, and with complete disregard for his own safety, Gadsby threw the Platoon Commander over his shoulder and sprinted across the Infantry Foot Bridge that ran over the canal and back into the base. Rounds zipped in front of his face and around his feet as he ran. Once in the check point he laid the Platoon Commander down by the Patrol Medic and collapsed on the ground with exhaustion. An Afghan soldier then indicated with sign language that another soldier had been injured in the canal. Having just run through a storm of bullets Gadsby was fully aware of the consequences of going back out through the gate. Again, on his own initiative and without a thought for his own safety, Gadsby put his body armour and helmet back on and he ran straight back out. Immediately the insurgents began directing a heavy weight of fire at him. Finding Guardsman Gizzie immobilised on the canal bank with gun shot wounds to both ankles, Gadsby threw Gizzie over his shoulder and ran back inside across fifty metres of exposed ground. Again bullets flew all around him but miraculously he made it back to the base unscathed. Again he handed over his charge to the medic and he collapsed with exhaustion.’ ‘Gadsby’s actions displayed a complete disregard for his safety on two occasions to try to save the lives of others. His decision to run across the Infantry Foot Bridge in view of the enemy rather than to cross the canal in cover gave the two casualties the very best chance of survival by getting them to medical aid as quickly as possible. That he then risked his life a second time, knowing the dangers that awaited him outside the Check Point is supremely worth of official recognition.’ (Lieutenant-Colonel Charles K. Antelme D.S.O., Commanding Officer, 1st Battalion, Welsh Guards 20th September 2009). THE RECIPIENT: Lance-Bombardier Steven Gadsby was born on 28 January 1985 in Louth, Lincolnshire, and joined the Royal Artillery in 2002. As part of the 40th Regiment (The Lowland Gunners) Royal Artillery, he served during the Iraq War of 2003-11, seeing active service in 2003 as part of his Brigade Search Team. During this time he was regularly sent out to perform house-to-house searches of locations which British Intelligence had suggested were likely locations of explosives, guns and cash, largely in Basra and at the nearby Al-Zubair Port. He spent a period of time serving in Cyprus in 2004, providing support along the ‘Green Zone’ of the divided city of Nicosia, and at barracks in Northern Ireland, before returning for a second tour in Iraq in 2006-7. During this second tour he undertook similar Search Team work, in addition to regular close protection and escort duties (including several minor incidents of hostile fire) and work in local prisons. In his own words, Gadsby was ‘not always the best-behaved soldier’, but he made up for it by being ‘bloody good at the job’. A tough, loyal, and popular character, he had been a brigade-level heavyweight boxer and ‘was not a man to mess with’ (as recorded in ‘Dead Men Risen: The Welsh Guards and the Defining Story of Britain’s War in Afghanistan’ by Toby Harnden). Despite his obvious ability as a soldier and fighting man, his career progression had been held back by repeated disciplinary issues. As he later reflected ‘I’ve been a bad lad for most of my time and pretty much ruined my own career…I’ve gone A.W.O.L. a few times – not for long – disobeying orders, just things like that. I’ve been arrested for fighting… and then got let off the hook because the bloke dropped the charges. You get arrested fighting in town and then in the morning an ex-squaddie who’s on duty just gives you a fine and says: “Don’t do it again.”’ (Dead Men Risen, page 170). Nonetheless, it was in 2009, after 7 years in the Army and still as a Gunner, that he was sent to serve as Fire Support Team Signaller, on attachment with the 1st Battalion, Welsh Guards, in Afghanistan. DEPLOYMENT IN AFGHANISTAN: The 1st Battalion, Welsh Guards were sent to serve in Helmand Province, Afghanistan in April 2009, and Gadsby would join 7 Platoon, part of the Number 2 Company Group, operating in the south of Nadi-e-Ali. 7 Platoon, under its talented Platoon Commander Lieutenant Mark Evison (nicknamed ‘007’ or ‘The Boss’), made its temporary home at Haji-Alem, a stout four-sided fort with metre-thick walls of 50 metres each in length and with a General Purpose Machine Gun (G.P.M.G.) tower on each corner. Despite the extremely basic facilities, and the general ‘lack of radios, water, food and medical equipment’ (as Evison’s diary, poignantly recorded) they maintained an excellent level of morale and formed a very tight-knit unit of tough fighting men. Lieutenant Evison, however, rued the overall lack of manpower and medical equipment at his disposal very early on, recording in his journal: ‘It is disgraceful to send a platoon into a very dangerous area with two weeks’ water and food and one team medic’s pack. Injuries will be sustained that I cannot treat, and deaths could occur which could have been stopped…we are walking a tightrope…’ Lacking a clearly defined mission beyond ‘bringing stability to the area’, 7 Platoon undertook regular patrols in the fields and sangars surrounding their compound, despite it being under clear Taliban control. The region was extremely rural and sparsely populated, being surrounded almost entirely by poppy fields, and as a result the opportunities for 7 Platoon to win over the ‘hearts and minds’ of the local population were few. Rather inevitably, 7 Platoon’s patrols made a conspicuous target, enduring repeated Taliban attacks whenever they left their immediate fortifications. Added to this, the surrounding roads and paths were often strewn with I.E.D.s. As Guardsman John Caswell later commented in an interview with the journalist Toby Harnden at Politico Magazine, (published on 29 November 2014), which was covered in further detail in Harnden’s book ‘Dead Men Risen: The Welsh Guards and the Defining Story of Britain’s War in Afghanistan’ (pg.156) : ‘the patrols were basically to go out and have a look at compounds. To me, I couldn’t understand why we were going. We’d get spanked every time. It seemed that our main objective was to go out and get shot at.’ THE PATROL & INCIDENT: It was during one such patrol, on the morning of 9 May 2009, that 15 soldiers from 7 Platoon (including Gunner Gadsby, acting as Signaller in the 2-man Fire Support Team) under the command of Lieutenant Evison, with four Afghan soldiers and an interpreter, were sent to investigate three nearby compounds less than half a kilometre to the west of their base at Haji-Alem. Leaving at 8.00am, it was not long before the interpreter, listening in on Taliban walkie-talkies, reported that the warning that enemy were ‘making their weapons ready’. Minutes later they suddenly came under fire from multiple directions, and using the irrigation ditches as cover, the patrol slowly made for nearby ‘Compound 1’ while returning fire. They did not know it, but they were now in the middle of an attack from three sides, were already almost surrounded, and were outnumbered by more than 50 Taliban fighters. Evison led half of the patrol across some open ground and into the compound, and from there they sought radio support. It was then, whilst standing exposed in the entranceway seeking better radio signal, that Evison was hit by two rounds, one into his body armour, and another into his shoulder. Whilst it was not immediately apparent (the immediate thinking was that he was shot in the hand), the bullet had severed a major artery, and he quickly began to lose blood despite some immediate first aid treatment. THE EVACUATION: From the irrigation ditch nearby, Gadsby and his fellow Royal Artillery Signaller Lance-Bombardier Andrew Spooner began furiously attempting to call in helicopter support, or mortar and artillery fire from the Forward Operating Base four kilometres away, but their primary Fire Control Radio (which used satellite radio technology) had malfunctioned on a previous patrol just days before owing to the failure of one crucial cable - and not a single spare was to be found, even at their base. They were therefore forced to rely upon a more basic Bowman Radio, which was prone to regular difficulties with interference, and was considered to be much less reliable. An Apache helicopter did appear soon after in the skies overhead, having flown from nearby Camp Bastion, but owing to the lack of proper radio contact the Apache was not able to fire upon the numerous hidden enemy positions as they could not properly identify their targets. Nonetheless, it was established by Lance-Sergeant Leon Peek; taking temporary command, and able only to shout over the din of the constant enemy fire, that Evison required urgent evacuation in order to receive proper medical attention. Gadsby and three other men from 7 Platoon (Korosaya, Hobbs and Richards) carried him on a stretcher from the compound to the drainage ditch, but with the stretcher now useless in the water, turns were taken to carry Evison, now falling in and out of consciousness. Guardsman Josese Korosaya, a Fijian (and prop for the Welsh Guards’ rugby team) performed a feat of strength in carrying him single-handedly for 200 metres through one long stretch of water, with Gadsby beside him, but then collapsed unable to go further. In turn, Gunner Gadsby then picked up his officer, and whilst attempting to maintain conversation and keep Evison conscious, continued to carry him towards safety through the chest-high water. Then, rather than taking a safer, but longer route along the canal (and with the added risk that Evison might drown), Steven Gadsby chose to run, completely exposed, while carrying Lieutenant Evison, across open ground and then across a Patrol Foot Bridge close to their base. With ‘a storm of bullets’ flying around his head, hitting the bridge and flinging mud up from the canal, Gadsby brought Evison across the final 50 metres to safety, where he immediately began receiving medical attention. Meanwhile, Gadsby collapsed on the floor close by, physically exhausted. Nearby, as other soldiers returned to their fort (by the slower, better-covered route), frantic efforts were made to pursue a Black Hawk for the evacuation of their fellow officer. Meanwhile another soldier, Guardsman Gizzie, had been shot through both ankles near the canal by a Taliban sniper. Summoning incredible strength, and aware of the risks, Gadsby re-entered the fray and collected Gizzie, with help from Guardsman Langley, bringing him back into their fort, before again collapsing with exhaustion. THE AFTERMATH: At 9.47am a Black Hawk helicopter made a ‘hot’ landing in their compound under enemy fire, and took off again with Evison onboard for Camp Bastion in less than one minute. Arriving at Camp Bastion in 14 minutes, he was then in the theatre within an hour and 23 minutes of being shot (according to ‘The Tragic Death of Lt. Mark Evison’, published in Politico on 29 November 2014). Despite the heroics performed by Gunner Gadsby, Guardsman Korosaya and the men of 7 Platoon, his evacuation still fell outside the so-called ‘golden hour’ for emergency treatment, and even after undergoing initial emergency surgery at Camp Bastion, Evison’s situation remained dire. He was swiftly evacuated back to Britain, by which time it was clear that his brain had suffered from such dramatic blood loss at the time of the incident, and the decision was taken by his family to turn off his life-support at the Selly Oaks Hospital in Birmingham on 12 May 2009. 7 Platoon remained in Afghanistan until late 2009, and the fort at Haji-Alem was then bombed by NATO forces to prevent it falling into the hands of the Taliban. Elsewhere, 1st Battalion, Welsh Guards also took part in Operation Panther’s Claw on 25 June 2009 fighting along the Shamalan Canal near the epicentre of the fighting at Babaji, helping to restrict Taliban access to the area. Later, Gadsby returned for a second tour in 2011-12 as part of Operation Herrick 15, however this service, although still clearly challenging – especially in light of his previous tour – was apparently rather more routine. THE AWARD OF THE C.G.C. Gunner Gadsby was recommended for the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross, Britain’s second highest decoration for combat gallantry after the Victoria Cross, by the Commanding Officer of the 1st Battalion, Welsh Guards, on 20 September 2009, with the award being formally announced in The London Gazette of 19 March 2010. Gadsby was invested with the C.G.C. by Her Majesty The Queen at Buckingham Palace on 2 June 2010, who spent a minute or two speaking with him, making the comment that she ‘was proud of him for what he had done for his country’ as she pinned the decoration to his chest, while also delicately noting the sad loss of Lieutenant Evison, showing her personal and meticulous knowledge of the armed forces. Gadsby soon afterwards took the decision to place the medal and group on loan for several years at ‘Firepower - The Royal Artillery Museum’, formerly of Woolwich, London. After the Museum was closed in 2016, the medal was subsequently stored at R.H.Q. Royal Artillery, Larkhill Garrison, Wiltshire, until it was formally returned to the recipient at his own specific request in July 2021. The Conspicuous Gallantry Cross, created in 1993 and first awarded in 1995, has been awarded just 61 times thus far to individuals (plus one ‘Unit Award’ for Northern Ireland), with the majority awarded for gallantry in Iraq (15), and Afghanistan (41). Of these, just 3 have been awarded to the Royal Artillery. Chronologically, Steven Gadsby was the 37th recipient of the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross, and is the only C.G.C. to have been awarded with any connection to The Welsh Guards.

Estimate: GBP 100000 - 120000