Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Private H. C. Barker, 16th Battalion (Queen’s Westminster Rifles), London Regiment, who was killed in action on the first day of the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916

British War and Victory Medals (4752 Pte. H. C. Barker. 16-Lond. R.); Memorial Plaque (Harold Charles Barker) in card envelope, with Buckingham Palace enclosure, extremely fine (3) £300-£400

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals to Great War Casualties.

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Harold Charles Barker was born in Kingston-on-Thames in February 1897 and was educated at Reigate Grammar School. He attested for the 16th (Queen’s Westminster Rifles) Battalion, London Regiment, on 13 November 1915, and served with them during the Great War on the Western Front from 5 May 1916. He was killed in action near Gommecourt on the first day of the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916, on which date the Battalion suffered total casualties of 600 out of a total attacking force of 750. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, France.

Sold with named Record Office enclosure for the British War and Victory Medals and copied research, including a newspaper cutting that features a photograph of the recipient.