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Auction: 25113 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - e-Auction
Lot: 377

The rare campaign group of four awarded to Special Duties Operator L. K. Pye, the Leader of the Auxiliary Unit Outstation at Falmer (Call Sign Harston 5) during the Second World War, late Captain, Royal Artillery

The famed 'Stay Behinds' or Home Guard Shock Squads were units of specially trained, highly secret quasi military units who were to carry out irregular warfare should the invasion of the British Isles take place; closely linked to the Special Operations Executive, they were to undertake missions to execute Nazi personnel and do the same to collaborators - being prepared to go down in a blaze of glory if required

1914-15 Star (2. Lieut. L. K. Pye. R.H.A.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves (Capt. L. K. Pye.); Defence Medal 1939-45, good very fine (4)

M.I.D. London Gazette 15 August 1917.

Laurence Knell Pye was born at Cuxton, Kent in June 1894 and having been commissioned into the Royal Field Artillery in September 1915 from the Inns of Court Officer Training Corps, served in France with the 2nd Indian Division Ammunition Column from 20 November 1915. Further serving with 'B' Ammunition Column, Royal Horse Artillery, he ended the War with a Captaincy to go with his 'mention'.

With the outbreak of the Second World War, Pye was a farmer at Balmer & St Mary's Farms, Falmer. He moved to Moons Farm, Barcombe Road, Piltdown, Sussex in March 1942.

The British Resistance Archive gives more details:

'The Auxiliary Units were a secret resistance network of highly trained volunteers prepared to be Britain's last ditch line of defence during World War Two. They operated in a network of cells from hidden underground bases around the UK. This part of the British Resistance Archive website is dedicated to research about these units, their secret underground hideouts known as Operational Bases (OBs) and Observation Posts (OPs), and of course the civilian personnel who were prepared to put themselves in the gravest danger.'

Pye was to be the Leader of the Unit Outstation based at Telscombe and then at Falmer:

'The first Station was a dugout on the outskirts of Telscombe Village. It is said a poacher discovered this so it was moved to a new dugout in the garden of the vicarage so it is assumed the Vicar was aware and possibly involved. This again was discovered so it was moved again.

The Station was moved to Moon's Plantation, Falmer around 5 miles to the Northwest of the first location in Telscombe. This would have been after the Spring of 1942 when Laurence Pye moved to Moon's Farm. It appears Harold West remained involved.

The dugout was at the top of a slope near the bridle path through Moon's Plantation. Locals remember a cantilevered entrance and was a post-war regular haunt of local children. It was eventually set fire to and then filled in by the landowner. Only rubble remains.'

Around 3,500 men were trained on weekend courses at Coleshill House, near Highworth, Wiltshire, in the arts of guerrilla warfare including assassination, unarmed combat, demolition and sabotage for the Units.

Pye died in 1984 at Lewes.

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Estimate

Starting price
£280