WW2 FRANCE GERMANY PALESTINE MEDALS PTE FITZPATRICK 1ST HIGHLAND LIGHT INFANTRY

Offered is a 1939 – 45 Star, France and Germany Star, War Medal (1939 -45), all unnamed as issued, General Service Medal (1918 -62), with clasp PALESTINE 1945 – 48, impressed named 1418765 PTE. E. FITZPATRICK. H.L.I. Swing mounted on card for display. Comes with a copy medal roll.

Private Fitzpatrick's service records are still held at the Ministry of Defence however he appears on the Palestine 1945 – 48 medal roll for the 1^st Battalion Highland Light Infantry. It is probable that he served with the H.L.I during WW2, however post war the H.LI. saw reductions in numbers and amalgamations of battalions. 1st Battalion H.L.I. was sent from Germany to Palestine in 1945 to help with internal security.

In 1946 the 1st Battalion H.L.I. was moved to Egypt where they paraded at the Citadel in Cairo, to hand over to the Egyptian Army, and strike the Union flag in the fortress for the last time since they first raised it there in 1882, 64 years earlier. Later in the same year, the Battalion returned to Palestine where tensions had reached a critical stage in the run-up to the creation of the State of Israel. The Battalion lost ten men killed and nearly seventy wounded. It was the last British unit to leave Jerusalem, in May 1948.