Orders, Decorations and Medals

‘I want you to know how highly we valued him ... It was at the height of the Cassino battle, on the evening of May 14th, that ‘B’ Company was called upon to do a difficult attack. Your husband went forward through everything with the rest of his Company, and it was only when the objective was reached that he was killed by machine-gun fire ... ’

Major R. G. Bosanquet, 1st Battalion, Queen’s Royal West Kent Regiment, in his letter of condolence to Private Barrick’s widow.


A well-documented and poignant Second World War campaign group of three awarded to Private George Barrick, Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment, who was killed in action at Monte Cassino in May 1944

1939-45 Star; Italy Star; War Medal 1939-45, in their addressed card forwarding box with related Army Council condolence slip in the name of ‘Pte. G. Barrick’, good very fine (3) £140-180

George Barrick, who was born in March 1912, enlisted in the Royal West Kent Regiment in March 1943. As cited above, he was killed in action in an attack on Monte Cassino on 15 May 1944, while serving in the 1st Battalion, Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment.

Sold with a quantity of original documentation, comprising:

The recipient’s Soldier’s Service and Pay Book; a printed notice of his marriage to Alice Eastabrook at St. James’s, Bermondsey in March 1942; Infantry Record Office letters regarding the recipient’s loss in action (5), dated during the period 18 May to 18 July 1944; letters of condolence from Major R. G. Bosanquet, 1/Royal West Kents, dated 7 June 1944 and as cited above, and Padre A. E. Beaumont, dated 14 June 1944, the latter stating, ‘Our boys succeeded where many failed and their success opened the gates for the rapid advance. Private Barrick was killed whilst successfully attacking a strong point. His body now lies in our cemetery, overlooked by Monte Cassino, and I can assure you the grave is properly looked after and suitably marked’; a letter of condolence to from the Directors of Barrow Hepburn & Gale Limited, where the recipient was employed as a leather cutter before his enlistment, dated 14 July 1944, together with two company newsletters for ex-employees on military service, the October-November 1943 issue reporting on the recipient ‘having recently become the proud father of a baby boy’ and the Summer 1944 issue on his death in action; War Office notification of death certificate, dated 28 July 1944; a letter of sympathy from the B.R.C.S. and Order of St. John, dated 15 August 1944; High Court grant of Probate to his widow, dated 22 September 1944; War Office (Effects Branch) letter dated 3 November 1944, enclosing a banker’s draft for £23:17:5 in full and final settlement of outstanding pay and war credits, a hand written note in the margin stating that the Officer i/c at Ashford, Middlesex had been instructed ‘to forward on to you all your late husband’s effects which may be in his possession or subsequently returned to this country’; War Office communication confirming the recipient’s burial in San Angelo (78th Division) Cemetery, Italy, dated 30 November 1944, and Buckingham Palace letter of sympathy, the envelope addressed to his widow ‘Mrs. A. Barrick’ (who later remarried, as per the ‘Mrs. A. Daniels’ named on the medal card forwarding box).