MALAYAN EMERGENCY : RHODESIAN SPECIAL AIR SERVICES

Your photo is "C" Squadron, the all-Southern Rhodesian (now Zimbabwe) unit of the Special Air Service (SAS), in Malaya in 1953. That was the first SAS squadron from a British colony or dominion.

Why Rhodesians went to Malaya

The Malayan Emergency 1948-60 pitted Commonwealth forces against the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA), the military arm of the Malayan Communist Party.

The SAS had been disbanded in 1945 and re-formed in 1950 for Korea, but was diverted to Malaya under Major Mike Calvert.

In early 1951 Calvert went to Southern Rhodesia on a recruiting drive. Roughly 1,000 white Southern Rhodesians volunteered, from which about 100 were chosen to form an all-Southern Rhodesian unit. They were initially called "The Far East Volunteer Group" later to become the Malayan Scouts.

While in Malaya they were renamed as "C" Squadron (Malayan Scouts). When British 22 SAS was officially named at the end of 1951 with its "A" and "B" Squadrons, the Rhodesian contingent was renamed C (Rhodesia) Squadron 22 SAS.

Service 1951-1953

Led by 24-year-old Temporary Captain Peter Walls - promoted to major after landing in Singapore - the volunteers arrived in Malaya in March 1951

For two years white Southern Rhodesian volunteers made up "C" Squadron. The Squadron comprised:

- C Squadron, Special Air Service Regiment (Malayan Emergency, 1951–1953)

Engaged largely in counter-insurgency warfare in deep jungle, they were credited with bolstering the thinly spread SAS ranks. Operations were small-team patrols, ambushes on jungle trails, tracking, and destroying MNLA base camps and food caches.

The tour ended in March 1953 when they came back to Southern Rhodesia and the unit was disbanded. Three members were killed in Malaya - Sergeant O H Ernst and Corporals J B Davies and V E Visagie. Walls was awarded an MBE.

This 1953 photo is the end-of-tour group portrait before that return. You can see the SAS beige beret, parachute wings, and the squadron pennant in the centre rear.

What happened next - why it matters for Rhodesia

Southern Rhodesia then sent a second unit, the Rhodesian African Rifles, to Malaya from 1956-58.

The Malaya veterans became the nucleus of the modern Rhodesian SAS:

C Squadron, SAS Regiment was formed during the Malayan Emergency by volunteers from Rhodesia. It was disbanded in 1953 and became the nucleus of "C" Squadron (Rhodesian) Special Air Service, operational from 1961.

After the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland broke up in 1963, only 31 men returned to Salisbury to re-form the unit under Major Dudley Coventry at Cranborne Barracks. From that core it grew into:

• "C" Squadron (Rhodesian) SAS (1961-1978)
• 1 (Rhodesian) SAS Regiment from June 1978 until Rhodesia became Zimbabwe in 1980.

Several veterans of Malaya, Peter Walls and John Hickman among them, subsequently held key positions in the Rhodesian Security Forces during the Bush War. One former member, Ronald Reid-Daly went on to found the Selous Scouts.

The lineage is therefore: Far East Volunteers -> Malayan Scouts -> C Squadron 22 SAS in Malaya -> disbanded 1953 -> Parachute Evaluation Detachment 1960 -> C Squadron (Rhodesian) SAS 1961 -> 1 Rhodesian SAS Regiment 1978-1980.

Rhodesia is now Zimbabwe

Southern Rhodesia - the country that sent the "C" Squadron SAS to Malaya in your photo - went through several name changes:

• 1923-1964: Southern Rhodesia - self-governing British colony
• 1964-1979: Rhodesia - after Northern Rhodesia became independent as Zambia, Southern Rhodesia dropped "Southern" and just called itself Rhodesia. In 1965 it made a Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) from Britain under Ian Smith. Unrecognized internationally.
• June - Dec 1979: Zimbabwe Rhodesia
• April 18, 1980 - present: Republic of Zimbabwe

Northern Rhodesia is now Zambia (independent since 24 October 1964).

So when people talk about the Rhodesian SAS, Rhodesian Light Infantry, Selous Scouts etc. from the 1960s-70s Bush War era, they are talking about forces from what is today Zimbabwe.

The capital in your photo's era was Salisbury - now Harare.

Hj Zulheimy Maamor

3 September 2026: 9.59 p.m