The honours awarded to SAS Warrant Officer Class 1 David ‘Dia’ Harvey were bought for a hammer price of £23,000 against an estimate of £15,000-20,000, via a UK commission bid.
Harvey – the consignor – was deployed during the Falklands War with G Squadron SAS three weeks before the main landings as part of a four-man patrol.
Along with valuable surveillance work, he then took part in fighting patrols including a diversionary attack under heavy mortar fire at Port Stanley.
More famous to the general public thanks to Andy McNab’s books, Harvey was also linked with the doomed Bravo Two Zero mission in the First Gulf War (1990-91).
Having given vital service as an SAS forward air controller, he journeyed over the border to replenish the SCUD missile-hunting teams such as Bravo Two Zero.
Harvey’s impressive service included four tours in Northern Ireland.
Cold War spying
A cloth badge for the Cold War BRIXMIS mission was among the awards of Green Howards Warrant Officer Class 1 Tony Haw. The group sold at £21,000.
The previous lot, sold for a mid-estimate £21,000, again to a UK commission bid, was a medals group including a ‘special ops’ Northern Ireland Queen’s Gallantry Medal and ‘Iron Curtain’ British Empire Medal.
It was consigned by a collector and “back on the market having been fully researched”, says Spink specialist Marcus Budgen.
Warrant Officer Class 1 Tony Haw of the Green Howards worked closely with members of the special forces on covert surveillance at the height of the Troubles in the 1970s as part of 14 Intelligence Company.
However, his Cold War mission as part of the The British Commanders’- in-Chief Mission (BRIXMIS) to the Soviet Forces in Germany (GSFG) – a military liaison group formed in 1946 which was also a good chance for nosing around – was straight out of a Bond movie. Haw was part of a team which penetrated a Soviet tank gunnery range in East Germany on May Day 1981 and came away with photos of the interior of a shiny new T-64 tank.
The BEM was an award for meritorious service by both civil and military personnel. It ceased in 1974 on the introduction of the QGM.
The auctioneers said both medal groups will remain within the UK.
