WW2 Burma Casualty Medal Group of Four – Lieut. R.S.S. Young, Special Force India Command, Royal Fusiliers, Attd. 3rd West African Infantry Brigade, R.W.A.F.F.

A second world war Special Forces casualty medal group awarded to Lieutenant Russell Selwyn Samuel Young, Special Force India Command, Royal Fusiliers, Attd. 3rd West African Infantry Brigade, Royal West African Frontier Force, who sadly died of wounds on 17/4/1944 and is remembered at the Taukkyan War Cemetery.

1939-45 Star unnamed as issued 
Burma Star unnamed as issued 
WW2 Defence Medal unnamed as issued 
War Medal 1939-45 unnamed as issued 

Died of Wounds – 17th April 1944 

Lieutenant Russell Selwyn Samuel Young joined up as soon as the war was declared, and after a period in the ranks and at an O.T.C.U. was commissioned to the Royal Fusiliers in 1940. Two months later he was drafted to Nigeria as a training officer to the West African Forces. Here he was at various times acting Adjutant and Intelligence officer, finding his relaxation mainly in riding and cricket. In the autumn of 1943 he went to India and from there to the Burma front where, serving with the Special Force, he was staff officer at Brigade H.Q.

Then on the 17th April 1944 he was gravely wounded leading his men in a critical counter-attack. He was brought back, and although the doctors did everything possible and had hopes that he would pull through. He died in his sleep an hour or two later.

From the O.C. Special Force India Command:

  ‘Special Force is a new formation, composed of personnel of the very highest physical and military standards. To have belonged to it is a great honour. as you will have read in the papers, the Force was put into action in the heart of Burma, from the air, and its only links with the base in India are wireless and aircraft, the latter operating from hastily improvised strips in the jungle. To accept, without question, orders that led to such isolation from comfort rest and safety, and to undergo the extreme hazards, hardships and strain of the campaign, called for more loyalty to the cause, and more self-sacrifice than is demanded of men in the more normal organisations in the service. Many people at home are proud of the fact that their sons and husbands are members of the Commandos, or the Airborne Divisions, or are in Parachute Units. I can assure you that the tasks of the Special Force embody all the risks attendant to these corps, with the added load that our operations are carried out for far longer periods in hostile territory, and in far worse climatic conditions, and against an enemy no less tenacious than the Germans.
In short, your son undertook cheerfully and with no thought of self, a task that ranks with ranks with the most hazardous and difficult asked of any man in this war. All ranks join in offering to you our deepest sympathy and in telling you of our admiration for our late comrade, whom we will always honour and respect’.

• Original condolence slip
• Two small framed photographs of him in uniform
• Photograph album showing him at school and later his service with the RWAFF
• Two letters from Chaplain R.C. Hastie Smith to his mother. 
• A handwritten note relating to the Chindit badge
• A photograph of a letter he wrote to his mother 
• A
  note from David Young detailing his WW2 service