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Auction: 17003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 561

(x) 'In the day time men lay exhausted on the fire steps, their faces covered with swarms of flies which they had not the energy to brush away.'

The Historical Records of the South Nottinghamshire Hussars Yeomanry 1794-1924, by G. Fellows and B. Freeman, refers.

Three: Private J. H. Barker, 1/1st Nottinghamshire Yeomanry (South Nottinghamshire Hussars), likely a veteran of challenging service in Gallipoli

1914-15 Star (1641 Pte. J. H. Barker, S. Notts. Hrs.); British War and Victory Medals (1641 Pte. J. H. Barker, S. Notts. Hrs.), a little polished, nearly very fine (3)

John H. Barker arrived in Egypt as a Private in the South Nottinghamshire Hussars on 12 September 1915, so he is likely to have served in Gallipoli before the unit's withdrawal from the peninsula at the year's end: by October it was occupying trenches near 'Pope's Seat', where large numbers of unburied lay in the area and casualties from sickness were high.

Owing to those mounting casualties, the dwindling ranks of the Hussars were amalgamated with other yeomanry units to form 'B' Battalion, Machine Gun Corps (M.G.C.), and remained actively employed in Egypt until embarked for France in the hired transport Leasowe Castle in May 1918: she was sunk west of Alexandria by the U-51 on the 28th, with a loss of 101 lives.

Having likely survived that ordeal, Barker eventually reached France and served in 100th Battalion, M.G.C.; sold with copied MIC entry.


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Sold for
£95