LONDON: Bill Cranston was a regular visitor to the Malaysian High Commission office in Belgrave Square, London. Although his service in the then Malaya and then again in Malaysia had long ended, he wanted to continue his friendship with Malaysians and Malaysia, to keep the memory alive.
His usual contacts at the High Commission were the Malaysian defence advisers whom he would talk with about his days in the military service and more importantly about his vast collection of badges from the Malayan/Malaysian armed forces, police, prison services, cadets and fire services, to name a few.
These were both metal and cloth types. There were also buttons, armlets, and belt buckles. All these he had carefully curated and documented in preparation for a book that he promised his dying wife, Beryl, that he would write.
When I met Cranston, he was in his early 80s, still a spritely “orang tua” as he would say, sharing with me his passion for the collection that would serve as a reminder of his days in the jungles of Malaysia.
I first met Cranston during the early days when the Pingat Jasa Malaysia (PJM) was awarded to British and Commonwealth veterans who served in the conflicts in Malaya in the late 1950s and 1960s. The ceremonies were usually held at the Malaysian High Commission in London or at military bases in and around Britain and Scotland.
Sometimes, coming all the way on a coach from Birmingham, Cranston would bring with him a suitcase full of badges to show to the officers in Belgrave Square. Light it wasn’t but he was keen to show what he had and make inquiries about those he had missed.
“People tell me that I have the best collection in the world,” Cranston told me proudly but he admitted that just maybe, there could be others, too, with an equally impressive collection.
He spent hours on his computer doing research, visited militaria fairs and even car boot sales, in his quest to complete his collection. His network of like-minded friends would phone him up and ask about a certain badge that would interest him to add to what he already had.
In his house in Birmingham, there were box files in shelves; each box file would have six or more of cards with badges.
“I have 30-odd boxes on the shelves. These are sealed, so they are not easily tarnished,” said the veteran who served in Malaya at the beginning of 1953.
“During the first emergency, then through the period of Konfrantasi, I went with the 7 Duke of Edinburgh’s Own Gurkha Rifles as part of the force sent to quell the North Kalimantan National Army rebellion in Brunei or better known as the Brunei Revolt in 1962 and later in 1968 I was sent to East Malaysia in connection with the Philippines’ threat to Sabah,” he informed me.
He finally ended his military service in Malaysia in late 1969.
It was during his days in the service that he started his hobby collecting armed forces’ badges and insignias.
“I have many badges from other places, too, not just from Malaysia,” he said from the days of his postings in other Commonwealth countries.
But of the Malayan and Malaysian collections, there were particularly interesting ones of the Home Guards of several states such as Kelantan, Terengganu, Kedah and Negri Sembilan.
Picking up a badge, “TRENGGANU HOME GUARD”, he said: “In keeping up with all the other states, Terengganu raised a force of home guards, who served throughout the Emergency till the end of it. These people weren’t paid, entirely voluntarily. It was a wonderful service to the country. On the whole, they were under the command of English army officers seconded to the Home Guards.
“In the early days of the first emergency, the armed forces and the police were stretched to the limit to do what had to be done. So they formed the home guards, the objective really was to take care of the kampung, to stop the terrorists from infiltrating and terrorising the people.
“Later on, they became operational, some of them even went into the jungle,” Cranston reflected on the Briggs Plan of 1950 by the then Lieutenant-General Sir Harold Briggs, who was the director of operations in Malaya in his strategies to combat the Communist terrorists.
Another particularly interesting badge he showed me was the Negri Sembilan Home Guards. “This one, it says — NSHG – Op Section, a very special badge of the Chinese special section. This is quite rare for the early 1950s,” Cranston recalled.
It seemed that it wasn’t easy to recruit Home Guards from the Chinese community then.
There were also numerous other badges such as the ceremonial badge of the Straits Settlement police, from Victorian days.
“There’s always silver lace, worn at the back of the belt, which is worn around the shoulders. They are really for putting messages in but really they are purely ornamental,” he explained.
A Federated Malay States railway badge was bought from a friend and there are others that he is still struggling to find out more information about because some of the inscriptions are in Jawi.
His friendship with the various defence advisers who were posted in London had benefited him enormously.
General Dato Tajri Alwi, who was a DA in London until 2010, was helping Cranston to complete his research on Malaysian military badges and he also added to his collection the last old Malay Regiment badge which completed his Malaysian military badges collection.
Tajri, who is retiring as Commander Army Training, said Cranston, who was Warrant Officer in the Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineering Corps, probably had a huge and valuable collection of Malaysian military badges.
Amongst his numerous collection, one meant a lot to Cranston.
It was the General Service Medal or Pingat Perkhidmatan Am (PPA), presented to him by General Othman Hj Jamal, who was then the defence adviser at the Malaysian High Commission in London.
“The award of the PPA came 44 years after I became entitled to it. In late 1969 I returned to the UK, and resumed my service with the British Army,” he explained.
After a few years of toing and froing of documents of his entitlement to the award, he received it at the age of 85.
“It has given me great pleasure to add this to my seven other service medals I received as I really treasure the memories of service in Malaysia, a country I grew to love during all those years,” said Cranston.
I have no knowledge about his book of Malaysian military badges as I had lost contact with him after his health started deteriorating. A day before Malaysia celebrates the Armed Forces Day, I dedicate this article to Bill Cranston, who had shared so much with me.