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Auction: 20002 - Orders, Decorations, Medals & Space Exploration
Lot: 562

The 1917 M.C. awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel W. S. Baker, 2nd Gurkha Rifles

Military Cross, G.V.R., unnamed as issued, on its original wearing pin, nearly extremely fine

Provenance:
Spink, May 2001.

M.C. London Gazette 18 June 1917:

'For conspicuous gallantry and resource. He was cut off from the rest of his Company owing to two of his rowers being cut, and landed lower down the river opposite an enemy machine-gun. He rushed forward and threw a bomb at the machine-gun forcing the enemy to withdraw it. He then dashed into a trench 40 yards higher up where three other boats had landed, collected a Lewis Gun Team and bombers, built a block under heavy fire and drove off two counter-attacks. He and these few men were cut off from the remainder of the Company for over three hours but held on persistently.'

William Sydney Bakerwas born in 1896 and initially worked on the East India Railways as a Traffic Superintendent. He served for one year in the East India Railway Volunteers before he was gazetted to a commission in the Indian Army of Reserve Officers (IARO) and joined 1st Battalion, 2nd King Edward's Own Gurkha Rifles (The Sirmoor Rifles) in 1915. He was awarded the M.C. and mentioned in despatches at the crossing of the River Tigris in Mesopotamia by the Battalion in February 1917. He resigned his commission in 1922 and between the World Wars worked in Calcutta and Vancouver, Canada. On the outbreak of the Second World War, he joined the Canadian Army and served in Crete and North Africa before transferring to the Indian Army in 1942 and serving at the Regimental Centre of 2nd Gurkha Rifles at Dehra Dun until 1947. Thereafter he served with the newly formed Pakistan Army in command of the Frontier Force Regimental Centre at Abbottabad until 1951. On return to the UK he was granted a Short Service Commission and posted to Malaya where in due course he commanded the leave centre in the Cameron Highlands. He retired from the Army to the UK in 1953 with the Honorary rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and died in 1971.

Sold together with the following original items:

(i)
The recipient's mounted group of ten comprising Military Cross, G.VI.R.; British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves; 1939-45 Star; Africa Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Malaya; Canadian Overseas Service Medal, with Maple Leaf clasp; Pakistan Independence Medal.

(ii)
Original Order of the Day, No.65, dated 30 March 1917, with full citation.

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Sold for
£550

Starting price
£400