Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Major P. G. Baker, Royal Australian Army Service Corps, late Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry and Middlesex Regiment

1939-45 Star; Burma Star; War Medal 1939-45, with M.I.D. oak leaf; together with a Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry Champion Recruit Medallion, bronze, the reverse engraved ‘1938 5437808 Pvt. [sic] P. G. Baker’; and the related group of three miniature dress medals, nearly extremely fine (4) £80-£100

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals to the 46th Foot and its Successor Units.

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M.I.D. London Gazette 5 May 1945:
‘For distinguished services in Burma and on the eastern frontier of India.’

Patrick George Baker was born at Headley, Hampshire, on 16 April 1921 ands attested for the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry in 1938, receiving a prize medal for Champion Recruit. He served in “B” Company, 2nd Battalion, during 1939, which included a period of garrison duty at the Tower of London, before proceeding for service in Burma. After attending an Officer Training Unit at Quetta, India, he was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Middlesex Regiment on 31 May 1941, and was promoted to War Substantive Lieutenant on 1 October 1942. For his services in Burma during the Second World War he was Mentioned in Dispatches; a photograph taken in Rangoon in 1945 shows him in the rank of Captain, and prior to his discharge he was promoted temporary Major.

Post-War, Baker worked as a forest engineer in Burma, in charge of a labour force which included many elephants. He subsequently emigrated to Tasmania and was employed by the Hydroelectric Commission. He attested for the Australian Citizen Military Forces and was commissioned as a Captain on 9 September 1952 and was posted to 123 Independent Transport Platoon, Royal Australian Army Service Corps. He was ultimately promoted to Major and served as the Officer Commanding, 123 Independent Transport Platoon, R.A.A.S.C. A photograph shows them at Brighton Camp, Tasmania, in May, 1953. He transferred to the Reserve of Officers on 23 February 1955, and died in Launceston, Tasmania, on 23 June 1999, aged 78.

Sold with a group photograph of the recipient with “B” Company, 2nd Battalion, D.C.L.I., on garrison duty at the Tower of London; a group photograph of the recipient with other officers in Rangoon in 1945; an annotated group photograph of 123 Independent Transport Platoon, R.A.A.S.C., May 1953; two large portrait photographs of the recipient; riband bar; D.C.L.I., Middlesex Regiment, and R.A.A.S.C. cap badges; and copied research.