Medals awarded
- General Service Medal 1918-62
Clasp: Palestine - 1939-45 Star
- Defence Medal 1939-45
- War Medal 1939-45
Medals are shown left to right, as per the bullet point list above.
John Barker was born in October 1913 and enlisted at Middlesbrough in November 1933. The record describes him as being 5 foot 9 inches tall with a fresh complexion, blue eyes and fair hair.
In 1937 he married Winifred Corbett in Sheffield and they had a daughter Pamela June.
Among the documents donated to the museum are Barker’s exercise book in which he recorded how to set out a Field Kitchen, taking into account transport accessibility and also the prevailing wind direction. The book also included a variety of recipes, ranging from making flapjacks to the difference between English and Australian emergency rations.
At the end of the Second World War John took out an Army Supply Corps Regimental Association Life Subscription. In November the documentation was signed for his transfer to the Army Reserve, which was completed at the end of February 1946. John Barker died in Cleveland in 1996, aged 82.
Occasionally, over time, some medal groups are broken up. In this case, the medals that have been donated to the museum do not include all of the medals awarded to John Barker.