These five members of the Royal Hampshire Regiment, the famous Tigers, fought Communist rebels in the British colony of Malaya and are now campaigning for a medal from the Malaysian government.

They left the Portsmouth area not knowing where they were going and were vital to one of the only successful counter-terrorist operations of the last century.

But their bravery has been overlooked because they were helping the British rather than the Malaysian government.

Corporal Derrick Belk, 73, of Station Road, Drayton, said: 'Without us Malaysia wouldn't have come into being, but their government won't recognise us.'

Other British soldiers have a medal from the Malaysian government, grateful for help in the fight against an Indonesian invasion during the 1960s – but they only received the Pingat Jasa Malaysia medal because it came after independence.

Corporal Belk, who served between January 1954 and September 1956, missed out by 11 months, as did privates Tony Hamilton, 72, Alf Elmsley, 73, Reg Smedley, 74, and Bill Farmer, 73.

Mr Hamilton said: 'While the other guys had signed up I was conscripted for National Service and really didn't want to leave Hampshire.'

'An enemy could pass within a metre of you in the jungle, armed with a gun,' said Cpl Belk.

'They used any trick they could, like leaving sharpened bamboo in the ditches by the side of the road.

'They would fire on your truck and the men would jump for cover, injuring themselves badly.

'But despite the horrors of it we would all do it again, were we asked.

'We will write, simply because we want them to recognise that we allowed their nation to be born in the first place.'

A spokesman at the Malaysian High Commission in London, said: 'The view is we cannot give out medals for events that took place before the nation came into existence.'