ADEN - Mystery Unit
 

I've just bought an EIIR GSM with clasp Arabian Peninsula. Named to 6876 Cpl Mohamed Ali Alawi Aulaol ADP.

Now that's a good Adeni tribal name but what the heck is the ADP.

It's no little fly-by-night outfit - it had nearly 7,000 people - yet I can find no reference at all.

I haven't yet got it in my hand but I go have a fuzzy picture of the unit name and it all looks OK to me. Why would anyone fake something nobody's ever heard of?

Cliff? Anyone?

Eddie

Eddie i have looked high and low and not turned up anything.All i can leave you with is a quote from 'Gordon's.' 'A truly bewildering number of Tribal Guards and Police Forces were also eligible'.I hope you find the mob and will be interested to find out who they were.Regards.Phil.

Could this be "Army Depot Police"or "Aden Depot Police"
The entitlement for award of the GSM with Clasp "Arabian Peninsula" includes "tribal guards" and "armed police"

see:

http://www.northeastmedals.co.uk/bri...1918_award.htm

Army Defence Police?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/GSM-Arabian-Pe...24128002r15874

Although depot sounds better than defence...

I know nothing of Arab matters, but did Abu Dhabi assist in the fight against FLOSY etc in Aden in the 1960s?

Abu Dhabi Police?

A.D.P.
 

ADP would be ARMY DEPOT POLICE. The only one's left are in CYPRUS but are now called SECURITY FORCE POLICE. The same style of badge as the ADP but the name is changed on the scroll.

So Jerry, were there Army Depot Police is all sorts of places? and could there have been 7,000 or so of them spread around those detachments?

I've found Cyprus, Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaya so far - any more?

Eddie

Army Depot Police
 

Hi Eddie,

I concur with Jerry that A.D.P. refers to Army Depot Police.

I currnetly have a single clasp GSM 1962 with clasp 'Malay Peninsula' in stock to a locally enlisted Malay member of the A.D.P.. The naming style on the medal here illustrated on this thread (ex ebay) is the same as the example I have in stock, so you should have no qualms about the medal's naming being correct.

I have had handled a few GSM's with Cyprus, Malaya or Malay Peninsula clasps over the years and from experience of sightings would say that those to the A.D.P. for Cyprus are most prolific on the market by some margin.

Presumbaly the authorities also locally recruited and deployed an A.D.P. force in Aden / South Arabia - and if so, opine you have just bagged a good and scarce example of the GSM to the Aden unit?

Yours aye,
Mark

A.D.P.
 

Eddie, I have looked for information, using Google, on the Army Depot Police and have found very little. I know about Cyprus, having served there with the Royal Engineers and as part of the United Nations(sector 2) and I have 2 turban badges to the Hong Kong ADP who were on Stone cutters island(ammo store I believe) Pictures added, 1 is still in the original packet from Hong Kong. I have aslo added the ADP FARELF badge which I think was used in Singapore. We should add Aden to the list as your medal was issued to a member of the ADP Aden. I see Aberdeen Medals also has/had medals to the ADP Aden. I would think that over the years there would have been many thousands in the ranks of the ADP.

Thanks Mark and Jerry.

I am not sure that Mark meant he'd handled Arabian Penninsulas to the ADP, but no matter.

My main concern had been that the number seemed very high for what must have been a small Aden unit with an unknown lifetime. But if ADP nmumbers were world wide that would account for the size.

Equally I can see no reason why Aden should not have had an ADP unit, it was after all a depot of some size.

Although the ADP is not mentioned in the list of local units qualified for the medal it need not necessarily be disqualified since if it was directly recruited and employed by the British Government and not the Federal Goverment it would qualify as a "British" unit. I'd be interested in Mark's reading of that aspect?

Eddie

Try http://www.britains-smallwars.com/Aden/units.html#army

There are various Ordnance, Supply, Ammunition, Vehicle and Sub Depots listed with their locations in Aden. All of these are likely to have been guarded by the ADP who as "armed police" (see my earlier post No3 on this thread where I first suggested Army Depot Police) qualified for the GSM Arabian Penisula.

Hello Eddie,

Without wishing to veer off tangent, would just clarify for the record that it has been Cyprus, Malaya and Malay Peninsula GSM'S that I have handled thus far - but would reaffirm and go with concensus of others here that I see no reason to believe that A.D.P. would not also have been present in Aden - and probably is missing on some of the cited listings of local units for the very reason that it was not a Federal unit.

Interestingly I checked my Malay Peninsula to the A.D.P. and his number is 7510 - which may well stand well with your reasonable suggestion that while 7000 plus Adeni's might not have been in the A.D.P. - but globally there may well have been as many that had served with entrants taking new numbers sequentially from a centralised block!

When I lived in Hong Kong I remember reading an article about the A.D.P. at Stonecutters Island including Sikhs / Pakistani's at Stonecutters and the unit was described as being very small in terms of numbers, which I opine was probably a common feature wherever they were deployed.

You have a nice medal there = well done!

Yours aye,
Mark

In Hong Kong (and presumably elsewhere in the British military world) the expansion of ADP was Army Department Police (as on Stonecutters' Island)

ADP
 

Eddie,

What about a swift note to the Medal Office, I am sure they still hold Medal Rolls in micro film. This would clinch it for you.

This office was brilliant when it came to providing my wife with her late father's and late sister's medals which had not been claimed after WW2. In addition to this she has also received the GSM 'Canal Zone' awarded to her late brother. They bent over backwards to help with these three individuals medals.

Give it a try, you may be surprised by the outcome. Good luck. Keep us informed please.

ORISKANY.

Army Depot Police Cyprus