It has been a good month for finding Birchalls on the intertubes. This GVI GSM is impressed to 23522812 PTE J.BIRCHALL RAOC. Because this is a GVI issue GSM, Private Birchall must have served early in the Emergency, prior to 1956. Interesting side note, it was called the Malayan Emergency because if it had been a war, then insurers would have been able to refuse claims for damage.
In my never-ending quest to find all the Birchall or similar named groups and singles on the internets, there is this example in the post this week. Named to 23416889 SIGMN.J.I.BIRCHELL R.SIGS., it is a EIIR General Service Medal with a bar for the Malayan campaign against the communist insurgency. This post-colonial bush war ran from 1948 to 1960 and was one of the few successful attempts to keep the communists out of S.E.Asia.
The New Zealand Regiment was formed in 1957. The infantry has always been the heart of the New Zealand Army and the New Zealnd Regiment was raised as an organisational formation to support the deployment of New Zealand soldiers in Malaya during the Emergency there. It was reformed and renamed in 1964 as NZ withdrew from Malaya and began the deployment into Vietnam.
This is a EIIR GSM with a Malaya Bar marked to 22670124 A.Birchall R.A.M.C.
Kiwi Medals 