Auction Catalogue

13 January 2021

Starting at 10:00 AM

.

Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

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Lot

№ 285

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13 January 2021

Hammer Price:
£460

Three: Private A. T. Baker, Hertfordshire Regiment, who was killed at the Battle of the Sambre on 4 November 1918

1914 Star (2418 Pte. A. Baker. 1/1 Herts: R.); British War and Victory Medals (2418 Pte. A. Baker. Herts. R.); Memorial Plaque (Albert Baker), with Buckingham Palace enclosure, together with small wooden stand for display; Memorial Scroll ‘Pte. Albert Baker Hertfordshire Regt.’, in scroll tube, addressed to Mr. F. Baker, Red Cottages, Wigginton, Tring’, good very fine (4) £300-£400

Albert Thomas Baker was born in 1896 at Wigginton, Hertfordshire the son of Frederick and Lucy Baker. He attested for the 1st Battalion, Hertfordshire Regiment (Territorial Force) in 1913 and, after the outbreak of war, served with F Company on the Western Front from 6 November 1914, initially occupying trenches during the closing stages of the 1st Battle of Ypres.

He was killed in action on the outskirts of Jolimetz, near Le Quesnoy, France on 4 November 1918 during the Battalion’s final action of the war. On that day, during the Battle of the Sambre, the 1/1st Battalion Hertfordshire Regiment took part in forcing the enemy’s positions to advance into the Forêt de Mormal.

Baker is buried at Ghissignies British Cemetery, France. His name is also to be found on the Wigginton War Memorial besides that of his younger brother, also killed in action in 1918.

Sold with the following items and original documents:
The recipient’s Hertfordshire Regiment cap badge; named Imperial War Graves Commission commemorative scroll in its tube; Army Form B. 104-121 from the Record Office sent to the recipient’s father regarding his son’s cemetery of burial, this dated, 2 April 1919; letter from the Imperial War Graves Commission sent to the recipient’s mother regarding her son’s precise grave location, this dated 26 March 1925; Transmittal Slip for 1914 Star, addressed to the recipient’s mother, dated 18 August 1919; small soft back prayer book ‘A Form of Prayer for Open Air Services’; small red hardback prayer book, inside front cover written in ink ‘Albert Thomas Baker in memory of his confirmation by the Bishop of St. Albans at Tring on Thursday March 19: 1914’; two commemorative cards in memory of the recipient, illustrated on front cover, containing a short elegy and outline of the recipient’s service and circumstances of death; Princess Mary 1914 card ‘With Best Wishes for a Happy Christmas and a Victorious New Year’ in envelope with two photographs of Princess Mary; Princess Mary 1915 card ‘With Best Wishes for a Victorious New Year’; portrait photograph of the recipient in uniform 75mm x 110mm; three photographs, in the form of postcards, featuring men of the 1/1st Hertfordshire Regiment, images taken in the field, likely France, two of which are addressed to the recipient’s mother, the first with the inscription in pencil ‘This is our guard’, the second with a greeting containing the line ‘what do you think of the photo, these are some of the best.’; a letter sent by the recipient to his sister, approximately 200 hundred words, dated 21 July 1918.