Family group:

Africa General Service 1902-56, 1 clasp, Somaliland 1902-04 (A. W. Barker, A.B., H.M.S. Perseus)

Pair: Driver V. T. Barker, Royal Artillery

British War and Victory Medals (224197 Dvr., R.A.) extremely fine (3) £180-220

Medals to father and son.

Able Seaman Barker wrote a diary of his time aboard the protected cruiser H.M.S. Perseus during the period, 3 April 1901-31 June 1903 - the full diary may be found online at ‘www.midessexships.org.uk’. Extracts taken from that diary -

15th May 1902 ‘... At 5pm we anchored off Bander Hasham. We here bought two swift sailing dhows to be manned by a dozen bluejackets each & armed with 3 pounder gun to be used for patrolling the Somaliland coast, to aid in preventing arms being landed on these shores for the Mad Mullah.....’

Later these ‘British-manned’ dhows were in action:

1 June 1902 ‘... At 5 p.m. two dhows were sighted, proved to be No 1 dhow with another dhow in tow, filled with rifles, ammunition & barrels of sulphur intended for the Mullah. She fought hard to get away but the men of No 1 dhow caught her killing 2 and wounding two. No casualties to speak of on our side. This is a version of the affair, which was in the papers entitled Battle between Dhows. During afternoon Lieut Bevans men’s sighted three dhows & gave chase, 2 being swift sailors got away, the other one was caught up with. Lieut. Bevan ordered her to hove to, the reply was a fusillade of bullets all falling short. Then the men of the Perseus knew they were in for a tough job. The 3 pounder gun was quickly brought into action. Accurate shooting was impossible owing to motions of dhow. The mast was quickly brought down & the helmsman was blown sky high by J. Russel A.B. Still the fellows kept a fire on our dhow but all escaped miraculously. Our dhow was brought alongside the enemy & into her jumped a dozen bluejackets armed with pistols and cutlasses. It was soon over, every fellow was cut about, but they dived into the sea & escaped ashore or else were drowned. Only 4 were took on board our dhow.... The killed were given a watery grave and the wounded were attended to as best as possible. The dhow was then took in tow & our fellows were anxiously looking for the Perseus to (find) them. The Perseus took captured stores and wounded on board & took both dhows in tow & headed for Aden. During the night the ship was stopped for the wounded fellows to be operated on.’ [The word ‘fellow’ is used here in preference to the word used in the original diary].

Valentine Thomas Barker was born in 1892 and enlisted into the R.F.A. on 29 November 1915. Transferred to the Army Reserve on 22 February 1919. With Certificate of Transfer to the Reserve and a photograph of the recipient.