b. 1981 Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire.
DATE OF CGC ACTION: 01/08/2006 Musa Qal’eh, Helmand, Afghanistan.
Andrew Radford CGC
Andrew Radford was born and raised in Staffordshire. He enlisted in the Life Guards of The Household Cavalry in 1998 at the age of 17, and would serve with the regiment with distinction for over 14 years, before leaving in March 2012. Radford served through tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan and his life would change dramatically on 1 August 2006.
His original recommendation for the award of the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross (London Gazette, 15 December 2006) states:
“On the morning of 1 August 2006, Lance Corporal of Horse Radford’s Troop was ordered to approach the town of Musa Qal’eh, in order to provide a surveillance capacity to cover the extraction of the Pathfinder Platoon and the resupply of the Danish Squadron based there. As his troop moved through a small village to the south of Musa Qal’eh, the lead two vehicles were ambushed by Taliban forces with a combination of Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) fire, heavy machine guns and a large improvised Explosive Device (IED). One of the vehicles was destroyed in the initial attack, killing three of its four occupants immediately and continued to burn fiercely. The second vehicle and its crew managed to extract out of the ambush albeit under accurate fire from the RPG’s, having to abandon their vehicle in the process.
Radford’s vehicle was approximately 70 meters to the west of the contract point. On seeing movement to the south of the destroyed vehicle, Radford’s vehicle commander observed an individual lying on the ground by the burning Spartan: it was ascertained that the individual was the driver of the destroyed vehicle, Trooper Compton. At this stage, the crew of the Scimitar that had been attacked in the ambush were extracting back towards Radford’s vehicle, still under constant enemy fire mainly from RPG’s. Without hesitation or prompting from the officer commanding his vehicle, and seeing the imminent danger that Compton was in, Radford dismounted from his vehicle and under sustained enemy fire from the Taliban fighters with total disregard for his own safety, ran into the ambush killing area towards gravely injured Compton.
Entering into a scene of utter devastation and horror, with the dead bodies of the crewman lying burnt beyond recognition and dismembered by the IED blast, Radford reached Compton and assessed his injuries (Compton had sustained 70 per cent burns to his body and a shattered leg). Still under close range fire from the Taliban, Radford realised that Compton needed to be extracted immediately if he was going to survive. Having been joined by the commander of the abandoned Scimitar (Corporal of Horse Flynn), Compton was lifted out of the ambush area, with Flynn giving covering fire, and made it back up a steep incline to the relative safety offered by his armoured vehicle. Consequently, the grievously injured Compton was then extracted westwards to the Squadron ambulance and subsequently to life saving treatment.
Throughout the incident, Lance Corporal of Horse Radford showed a complete disregard for his own safety and acted completely on his own initiative, a father of four young children, he deliberately put himself in harm’s way to rescue a fellow solider. He showed an almost superhuman effort to rescue Trooper Compton and extract him uphill the 70 metres back to his own armoured vehicle under challenging conditions. This feat was all the more remarkable as at the time he was under fire from a mixture of AK-47s, machine guns and RPG’s. At no point did he hesitate to think of himself, utterly focused on saving his fellow comrade in trouble, who had suffered horrendous injuries. Without doubt, his immediate action saved Trooper Compton’s life. It is this act of selflessness, conspicuous gallantry and bravery in the face of a well co-ordinated and sustained enemy ambush that merits public recognition.”
Following his discharge from the military in March 2012, he struggled to find employment when back on civvy street in Stone, Staffordshire. Following a media campaign in his local newspaper, he was given work as an operations manager with a construction firm, Kier in May 2012. Sadly, due to financial issues, he chose to auction his medal group at Noonans in Mayfair, London on 27 June 2012, where the hammer price fell at £95,000.
In more recent years, Andrew has become involved in local politics and serves as a parish councillor in The Wrekin. He also works almost full time as a volunteer for Reform UK as the Shropshire County Organiser and the Campaign Manager for The Wrekin. He is intending to stand as a parliamentary candidate for Reform at the next General Election (courtesy of Andrew’s own personal website – andrewradford.co.uk)
LOCATION OF MEDAL: PRIVATELY OWNED.
