Higham, Richard

Date of birth:: 1918 (Preston/Lancashire, Great Britain)
Date of death:: March 1993
Service number:: 3711552
Nationality:: British (1801-present, Kingdom)

Biography

Richard Higham enlisted in the King's Own Royal Regiment in February 1937.
During WW2, he was posted to Iraq, India and Egypt before qualifying as a parachutist and transferring to 1st Special Air Service (SAS) in October 1942.
The raid for which he was awarded the Military Medal was led by Lieutenant Colonel Blair Mayne.
Higham and his colleagues came under attack from the enemy as they tried to capture Bagnara Calabria, on Italy’s west coast, as part of Operation Baytown.
With three men lying seriously wounded on a road, Higham crawled through a gutter, dodging enemy fire, to pull them to safety one by one.
He remained in the forces after the war, serving in Malaya and gaining a mention in despatches for his brave conduct with the SAS before going back to civilian life in 1960.
He died in March 1993, aged 73.
He was also awarded the General Service 1918-62 medal, 2 clasps, Palestine and Malaya.

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Military Medal (MM)

Period:: Second World War (1939-1945)
Rank:: Private
Unit:: Infantry
Awarded on:: January 13th, 1944

Recommendation:
"During operations at Bagnara on the 4th September 1943 while crossing a road which was enfiladed and swept by machine gun fire three men were wounded and fell in the middle of the road unable to move. Several attempts were made to reach these wounded but the heavy enemy machine gun fire drove them back. Private Higham, however, using a small gutter crawled up the road and although each time he appeared heavy fire was brought down on him he brought the wounded back one by one."