Colonel Brownrigg ends his account of 61st Recce’s active service with a summary of their battle honours:
“During the campaign the regiment earned one Distinguished Service Order (Colonel Brownrigg himself for the advance into Belgium at the beginning of September 1944), eight Military Crosses (Major Frank Harding, Lieutenants Flint, Laing, Macey, Pilsbury, Stone, , Truman and Urban-Smith), one Distinguished Conduct Medal (Warrant Officer 2 Robert Dudley Page), five Military Medals (Sergeants Atkins and Hollingworth, Lance Sergeant Moorhouse, Corporal Mulcahy and Trooper John Traynor), three Croix de Guerre (Lieutenant Griffiths and Sergeants Smeaton and Wells) and three M.B.E.s (Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire – Captains Hodgson* and Meredith and Warrant Officer 2 Edwin Thomas Maxfield**). In addition, our Belgium Liaison officer (Capitaine Commandant del Marmol) received the Military Cross for his work with us. Two other officers were awarded M.C.s after our disbandment.”
*Captain Edwin Henry Hodgson, the Quartermaster, was awarded the MBE for working ‘untiringly and selflessly’ in the interest of the regiment since its formation in 1941 and his ‘magnificient’ conduct on Active Service.
**Another MBE was awarded to Squadron Sergeant Major Edwin Thomas Maxfield for his work with the regiment since its inception. SSM Maxfield had also fought in World War 1 and served in India between the wars.
(See 61st Recce Battle Honours.)
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