WW1 medal pair – British War Medal & Victory Medal (missing 1914-15 Star) – awarded to JOHN BAKER of the 2nd Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment

Stock Reference – MM-MED-0032

WW1 medal pair – British War Medal & Victory Medal (missing 1914-15 Star) – awarded to JOHN BAKER of the 2^nd Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment

You are looking at a WW1 pair of medals, British War Medal and Victory Medal, awarded to Private JOHN BAKER of the 2^nd Battalion the South Staffordshire Regiment.

JOHN was also entitled to the 1914-15 Star, unfortunately missing.

The medals are inscribed ‘10765 PTE. J.BAKER. S.STAFF.R.’

JOHN served with the 2^nd Battalion of the South Staffordshire Regiment, who were one of the first regiments to be deployed to the Western Front in August 1914, although JOHN arrived in France later, on the 4^th of May 1915.

Prior to his arrival, the battalion were in action at the Battle of Mons and the First Battle of Ypres in 1914, and in 1916, they were at the Battle of the Somme (July-November) and in the Serre and Mailly Maillet area during the Battle of the Ancre, with them suffering heavy losses in this later action.

It has to be assumed JOHN served with his battalion during 1916, but not during the Battle of the Ancre, because he left the army on the 13^th of October 1916, prior to the battle taking place, with records suggesting he had been discharged due to him suffering from bronchitis and neurasthenia, the latter being a a mental, nervous and physical exhaustion condition, often recorded in WW1 records by doctors, and in some cases, overlapping with what we may now consider ‘shell shock’.......He was discharged from the army on the 13^th of October 1916.

After the war, JOHN applied for a grant from the ‘King’s Fund’, for the purchase of a horse and equipment, and money was awarded, however, a further grant was stopped on the grounds, at least this is what it appears to suggest, that he had passed away, although subsequent records suggest this entry was made in error, because JOHN and his family appear in both the 1921 Census and the 1939 Register.

JOHN BAKER was born on the 31^st of January 1883, and he married ROSE JAMES in the Wolverhampton area c1903/04 (registered Wolverhampton, March quarter 1904).

Out of military interest only, and unconnected to these medals, is that their son EVAN JOHN BAKER was a General List lieutenant during WW2, and was killed in action in Italy on the 10^th of June 1944, at the age of 39 years. He is buried at the Caserta War Cemetery.

SELLER NOTE = Supporting documentation obtained and / or created during my research into this medal will be provided.