Medals to the Liverpool Regiment from the Collection of Hal Giblin

Three: Second Lieutenant J. C. Barber, 10th (Scottish) Battalion, Liverpool Regiment, who was killed in action in the charge at Hooge on 16 June 1915

1914 Star (3043 Cpl., 10/L’pool R.); British War and Victory Medals (2. Lieut.) good very fine or better (3) £400-500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals to the Liverpool Regiment from the Collection of Hal Giblin.

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Second Lieutenant John Christian Barber was born at New Brighton, Cheshire in August 1892, and educated at the Leas School, Hoylake and at Uppingham. After leaving school he secured a position with T. & J. Harrison, one of Liverpool’s leading shipping lines. He was sent out to Mexico and was in Vera Cruz in that country when the U.S. Marines landed to quell the insurrection in April 1914. Newspapers carried his personal account of his experiences:

‘Word passed around that the American Marines were about to land and take the port, no resistance was expected. I saw a small body of Marines going at the double towards the Post Office and the Custom House. The crowd began to yell and jumped on the tramcars. Mexican soldiers assembled at the street corners, and a company of 25 or so took up their positions on the roof and front balconies of our hotel to our horror! There were 30 or 40 foreigners in the hotel. Firing started about noon and I watched with an American from my room for a little while, but it very soon got too hot to stay there with safety. Soon afterwards the first man on the roof was hit badly, and he died about 20 minutes later. The nursing of the dying and the wounded is still a terrible nightmare. Some were shot on the balconies, but the majority on the roof, altogether there were three killed and ten wounded in the hotel, horrible wounds and no trained nurse or a doctor to be had. The streets were impassable for the Mexican Red Cross Corps. We did what we could - dissinfecting, plugging and bandaging the wounds. The supply of brandy soon gave out, and some of the poor wretches suffered agonies.

Night brought us no rest and although the firing lessened there was no news of the Americans progress and the streets were still too dangerous for the ambulance. The whole thing was horrible owing in a large degree to the fact that a few hundred criminals, probably life-sentenced men, were let loose and armed, and they shot at anybody, and also very many of the Mexican officers got very drunk. Looting and drinking, with occasional shooting, went on all night.

So far as the Americans were concerned, it transpired that they did not at first land sufficient men, and accordingly could not fight their way into the town until reinforcements had arrived the following day. Short as the battle then was, the din and the damage done were terrific, and the streets were covered with dead. In all some 300 Mexicans and 18 Americans were killed, and it was with great relief that I was able at last to get aboard the Esperanza for Galveston, which normally carried about 150 passengers, but which was now crowded with 400 American refugees from Vera Cruz.’

When he returned in June 1914 he joined the family firm in Liverpool. Volunteering the day after war was declared, he was soon promoted to Corporal in which rank he accompanied the first contingent to France aboard the S.S. Maidan in November 1914. After sterling work in the trenches he was commissioned in the field, rising from the ranks to command a platoon in March 1915. Second Lieutenant Barber was killed in action on 16 June 1915 during the charge at Hooge when he was hit by a shell whilst leading his men. His name is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium.

The following is extracted from The Liverpool Scroll of Fame: ‘Captain Noel Chavasse, who won the V.C. and Bar before he met his own heroic death ministering to the wounded quite regardless of danger, left a brief tribute to Barber’s splendid conduct at Hooge. He met him, it seemed, on his way up to the trenches before the attack, and he was then in the best of spirits. They even joked together, although quite conscious of the grim work before the battalion, and equally conscious that that might be their last meeting. Soon afterwards Barber was fatally hit by a shell whilst leading his men towards the enemy’s trenches with the utmost gallantry. The Germans, unfortunately recaptured the advanced ground where he fell in a counter-attack, and his chum was thus unable to recover his body.’

A superb three-quarter length oil painting of recipient hangs in the Liverpool Scottish Museum, Botanic Road, Liverpool.