Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Surgeon G. A. Walker, Royal Navy, attached 1st Field Ambulance, Royal Naval Division, who was killed in action during the battle of the Ancre on 14 November 1916

1914-15 Star (Surg. G. A. Walker, R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (Surg. G. A. Walker, R.N.) mounted for wear, extremely fine and a rare Naval Surgeon casualty (3) £800-£1,000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Small Collection of Medals to Naval Surgeons.

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Godfrey Alan Walker was born on 3 November 1888, the second son of T. H. Walker Esq., of High Garth, Mirfield, Yorkshire, and was educated at Epsom College and the London Hospital, graduating M.R.C.S. and L.R.C.P. London 1912 and M.B. London 1912. He took up positions at the Royal Infirmary Sheffield and at the Baythorpe Infirmary.

Walker was commissioned as Surgeon in the Royal Navy on 5 August 1914, and after spending 12 months at Cromarty, was attached to the newly formed Royal Naval Division. He sailed for Gallipoli aboard the Cunard Liner S.S. Ivernia, landing at Cape Helles, and served with distinction during the bloody battles of the Gallipoli Campaign, having at least five narrow escapes with death. He was one of the last to leave both Helles and later the island of Tenedos.

Walker was transferred with the newly re-designated 63rd (Royal Naval) Division on the Western Front in July 1916 and was killed by a large shell exploding directly on his Medical Aid Post whilst tending a wounded man in one of the front-line trenches during the Royal Naval Division's attack on Beaucourt, during the battles of the Ancre on 14 November 1916.
By a tragic coincidence, on the same day that his parents received news from the Admiralty of Surgeon Walker's death, they received the last letter written by their son stating that, ‘We are just going up to the line again and I may not have the opportunity of writing for some days, so I am writing a hurried note to let you know all is merry and bright.’

Surgeon Walker is buried in the Hamel Military Cemetery, Beaumont-Hamel, France.

Sold with copied research including a photographic image of the recipient.