Richard Currie gave a superb presentation on the Borneo Confrontation 1962-1966 on 22 March 2026.
Summary of presentation:
The ‘Confrontation’ was an undeclared war in which Indonesia sought to break apart the newly formed Malaysian Federation by prising away the northern Borneo states. What followed was a four-year struggle fought in dense jungle, remote kampongs and along a mountainous and porous border. At its height, up to 15,000 Commonwealth troops were deployed to Borneo. Although sometimes described as a ‘secret war’, The Confrontation was not hidden, it was simply under-reported. With few journalists willing to join troops in remote jungle bases, the campaign unfolded largely out of public view. This absence of media scrutiny allowed Commonwealth forces to conduct one of the largest clandestine operations in military history without compromise. Those of us at the October 2025 society weekend had a preview of this fascinating talk. As noted above this is a talk about the Confrontation with rare pictures on the ground rather than a display of philatelic material which have been shown before.
The presentation explores:
- The origins of the conflict, beginning with the Brunei Revolt.
- How operations were shaped and conducted in the jungles and villages of northern Borneo.
- The defence of northern Borneo from Indonesian incursions.
- The launch of the Top-Secret Operation CLARET which took the fight across the border through offensive raids and supply-line interdiction.
- Some of the defining engagements and acts of gallantry.
- The political developments that ultimately brought the conflict to an end.
Richard Currie:
As a retired senior British Army officer Richard is perhaps uniquely well placed to give this talk. He was commissioned into the Queen’s Royal Irish Hussars in 1978 and served in Germany, Cyprus, Northern Ireland during the early part of his career. After Staff College, he held senior appointments in the Army General Staff and the Defence Staffs. Following the military, Richard became a Business Development Associate with the Thales Group and later became a visiting research fellow at the University of Oxford’s Changing Character of War Centre supporting post-conflict transformation in Colombia. He is a Trustee of The Queen’s Royal Hussars Charity, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and Member of the Royal Philatelic Society, London. He is a keen photographer and has driven his 35-year-old Land Rover through 45 different countries.
