The Welsh Guards Charity are delighted to have secured at auction, the outstanding post-war MBE, Second World War North-West Europe operations [immediate] MM and Japan BEM group awarded to Major (QM) A P 'Bobby' Joyce, Welsh Guards.
In a remarkable career spanning active service in Normandy in 1944 to Northern Ireland in the 1970s, the citation for the award of an immediate Military Medal (MM) in 1945 and published in the London Gazette on 12 July 1945 sums him up and reads:
‘Lance Sergeant Joyce was in command of the leading section of No. 7 Platoon, the left forward platoon during a Company/Squadron attack on the village of Bonninghardt on 7 March 1945. During the attack his section came under fire from a Spandau dug-in by the side of a farmhouse and another opened up from the house itself, directed at No. 8 Platoon on his right flank.
Lance Sergeant Joyce, realising he was caught in the open, dashed forward with his section and got them under cover close up by the house. His quickness in appreciating the situation, and his determined action in carrying on, caused the enemy gunner to withdraw behind the house. He then single-handed ran across to the house, leaving his section to give him covering fire, and got up to the window where the Spandau was firing, enfilading the platoon to the right. He got up under the window and shot the enemy firer and, after hurling a grenade through the window, he dashed back and brought up his section to consolidate the area of the house.
His action enabled the platoon to seize the farm and surrounding buildings, capturing 26 Germans from 22 Para Regiment and enabling his platoon to carry on with the attack in which they consolidated on their objective. The speed, resourcefulness and determination of Lance-Sergeant Joyce’s action undoubtedly saved the Company many casualties and largely contributed to the success of the attack.’
Lance Sergeant Joyce's actioned as depicted in the Victor comic of 8th July 1972 as:
Up for auction at Spink, London on 10th April 2019 (see catalogue entry here), it was imperative that this historical Welsh Guards group was retained within the Regiment as an important part of our heritage to be viewed by past, present and future Welsh Guardsmen.
