Colonel Johnny Lawes, Gurkha who won an MC for his bravery during the Malayan Emergency

His MC citation paid tribute to his courage, leadership and tenacity over several months of continuous jungle operations

Colonel Johnny Lawes, who has died aged 97, was awarded an MC while serving with the Gurkhas during the Malayan Emergency and saw further active service on operations in Borneo.
In May 1956, Lawes was in command of Support Company, 2nd Battalion 2nd King Edward’s Own Gurkha Rifles (2/2 GR) and serving in Negeri Sembilan, Malaya. He was tasked with destroying the Bahau Armed Work Force (BAWF), a group of Communist Terrorists (CTs), in the Bahau Police District. This involved liaising with the police, enlisting the help of planters and carrying out reconnaissance in dangerous areas, sometimes wearing civilian clothes.
In July, intelligence indicated that the BAWF were planning to meet in a large field, devoid of cover, on a rubber estate. After a night approach march and a river crossing, Lawes and his men were lying in ambush when, late that afternoon, they saw the CTs.
They were a long way off and moving away from the ambush area so Lawes decided to cut them off. Taking two of his best riflemen, he stalked the group for more than a mile through rubber plantations. After closing to within 300 yards, he saw that the CTs were on the edge of thick jungle and immediate action was needed to prevent them getting away.
Leaving one rifleman to cover the jungle edge with his Bren gun, he and the other rifleman ran forward over open ground to try to come to grips with the enemy. The CTs took cover behind trees and opened fire at a range of 60 yards before they broke and ran into the jungle under fire from the Bren.
Three CTs were wounded. One died the next day and, over the next five months, Support Company eliminated BAWF, accounting for eight killed, four captured and seven surrendered. The citation for the award to Lawes of an MC paid tribute to his courage, leadership and tenacity over several months of continuous jungle operations.
John Owen Lawes was born in London on August 29 1927. His father had served with The Hampshire Regiment and Royal Indian Army Service Corps. Always known as Johnny, he was educated privately in India, and in 1944 he enlisted as a trooper in the Southern Provinces Mounted Rifles. The following year he enlisted in the 1st Battalion The Royal Warwickshire Regiment at Poonamallee, near Madras.
After Officers’ Training School in Bangalore, in 1946 he was gazetted to an Emergency Commission in the Royal Hampshire Regiment and seconded to 2GR. He subsequently moved to Malaya in 1948 and transferred to the 2nd Battalion. The following year he resigned from the Army, but rejoined and served with the Royal Hampshire Regiment on a short service commission. On returning to 2/2GR on secondment, he was granted a regular commission.
After seeing active service in Malaya, he moved to Hong Kong with 2/2GR as adjutant. He attended Staff College Camberley in 1960 and then had a staff job at HQ Allied Land Forces, Norway.
In 1964, he commanded a company of 2/2GR on operations in Sarawak during the Confrontation with Indonesia. This undeclared war stemmed from Indonesia’s opposition to the creation of the state of Malaysia by merging Peninsular Malaya with the former British colonies of Singapore, Brunei, Sarawak and North Borneo (later known as Sabah).
Indonesian regular troops crossed the frontier into Sarawak in an attempt to establish bases in the jungle. British Commonwealth forces responded by setting up their own bases near the border with Kalimantan and mounting covert cross-border raids to pre-empt these incursions.
The border with Kalimantan followed the line of a steep ridge. Lawes was ordered to dominate this feature and the track which ran along it. Having quickly realised that his platoons would achieve little by clambering up and down 40 miles of rock face, he decided that higher authority could hardly object to what it knew nothing about and operated on the jungle slopes some 1,000 yards across the border into Kalimantan. His men found the tracks that Indonesian troops used to climb up to the ridge and these routes were patrolled and ambushed so effectively that they were forced to move their bases further away.
After attending the Joint Services Staff College, Latimer, Lawes moved to HQ Far East Land Forces as Deputy Assistant Adjutant General (Manning). In 1968 he assumed command of 2/2GR in Brunei, and his greatest contribution was his unceasing advocacy in the campaign to save the battalion from amalgamation. He was subsequently Deputy Commander HQ British Gurkhas, at Dharan in Nepal, and for the last three years of his Army service he was Military Attaché Helsinki.
He retired from the Army in 1978 and in 1981 joined the Sultan of Brunei’s Gurkha Reserve Unit. He became commandant in 1985 and retired in 1988.
During the Queen’s visit to Helsinki in 1976, the mayor of the city gave a dinner in her honour. When he rose to his feet to make a speech, he knocked over a glass of red wine which went all over the table. The Queen stared fixedly at Lawes. She said afterwards that had he smiled or reacted in any way, she would have burst out laughing. For his services during her visit, he was appointed LVO.
In retirement, he lived in a village in Somerset and enjoyed walking, travelling, entertaining and family gatherings. He was a member from its creation of the Sirmoor Club for British former Gurkha officers.
John Lawes married, in 1961, Annette Truss, née Wise, widow of Major DA Truss, late of 2GR. She died in 1992 and he is survived by a daughter, a stepdaughter and two stepsons.
John Lawes, born August 29 1927, died September 30 2024