Orders, Decorations and Medals

A rare and unusual North Russia M.C. for the suppression of the SlavoBritish Legion mutiny at Troitsa, awarded to Captain A.M. Barrett, Berkshire Regiment and Essex Regiment

MILITARY CROSS, G.V.R.; 1914-15 STAR (2. Lieut., R. Berks. R.); BRITISH WAR AND VICTORY MEDALS (Capt.); INDIA GENERAL SERVICE 1908-35, 1 clasp, North West Frontier 1930-31 (Capt., M.C., Essex R.) the first four nearly very fine the last extremely fine (5)

M.C., London Gazette, 21 January 1920: (North Russia). 'He was the commander of one of the companies of Dyer's Battalion during the mutiny occurring in that battalion at Troitsa on 7 July 1919. He was instrumental in stopping the mutiny, and maintained his company steadily on parade during heavy fire absolutely owing to his courage and determination. He entirely prevented a disaster.'

Captain Alfred Mouat Barrett first saw active service in France and Belgium, between February and March 1915, with the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the Royal Berkshire Regiment, and throughout 1917 he was employed in operations in Greek Macedonia, Serbia, Bulgaria, European Turkey and the Islands of the Aegean. It was in 1919, however, that the most interesting period of his career commenced, when, as a Company Commander in Dyer's Battalion of the Slavo-British Legion (SBL), he assisted in quelling a mutiny. On the surface the SBL comprised ex-Bolshevist POWs who had been 'turned' by considerable discipline and training achieved under the auspices of the British Army it was General Ironside's hope that such units would ultimately influence the entire North Russian campaign in his favour. Certainly some of the early actions fought by the 1st Battalion (Dyer's) did everything to support Ironside's optimism. In the heavy fighting of January 1919 several men won bravery decorations, and one Sergeant, with nine Russian other ranks, held out in a blockhouse to the last man, in typical British style. In fact so impressed was Ironside that he presented the Battalion with its own Colours in a parade on the King's birthday, at Archangel, that June. Below the surface, however, trouble was brewing, many of the recruits still harbouring strong communist tendencies. This rebellious cell was further encouraged by so-called neutral men who had been picked up from the streets and prisons of Archangel, men who the White Russians quickly recognised as common gangsters but who, incredibly, were given a chance of reprieving themselves by the British. In the early hours of 7 July 1919, two companies of Dyer's Battalion went into open rebellion, their murderous intent commencing with the massacre of three British and four Russian officers. At length, following further bloodshed and the death of two more officers, nearly 150 ranks crossed over to the Bolshevik lines. The remaining companies, of which Captain Barrett commanded one, were successfully restrained from following their compatriots, and on the arrival of reinforcements sent by Ironside, they were disarmed. As The Times correspondent at Archangel later reported, this episode resulted in the abandonment of the entire SBL project. The lot is sold with a number of photocopied extracts from his despatches home, the whole providing the full and tragic story of Dyer's Battalion.