Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria, to include the Brian Ritchie Collection (Part I)

A rare Second World War Medal of the Orange Nassau group of four awarded to Sergeant E. J. Baker, Royal Army Ordnance Corps

1939-45 Star; France and Germany Star; War Medal 1939-45, in their original addressed card forwarding box; The Netherlands, Silver Medal of Honour of the Order of Orange Nassau, in its Wielik, Hague fitted case of issue, extremely fine (4)

£400-500

Baker, a native of Shanklin on the Isle of Wight, who was born in June 1913, served in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps from October 1941 to September 1946, and was decorated by the Netherlands Government for his ‘good services rendered in the liberation of the Netherlands as a member of the 21st Army Group’.

Sold with a quantity of original documentation, including warrant and statutes for the recipient’s Orange Nassau Medal, the former in the name of ‘Sergeant E. J. Baker of the British Army’ and dated ‘5 April 1946 (Secret Nr. Z 62)’, with several related letters including details of an investiture at the Duke of Yorks H.Q. in London in December 1947; together with his Soldier’s Release Book and Record of Service Card; an H.Q. 130th Infantry Brigade communication that suggests Baker was also entitled to the Defence Medal, but his Army Council campaign medal forwarding certificate is clearly marked with a total of ‘3’; a military pass to attend the War Crimes Court at Luneburg on 19 October 1945, inscribed to Baker and signed by him and the issuing officer; assorted uniform badges, metalled and in cloth (7); and a good selection of wartime postcards and photographs from Holland.