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.) extremely fine (3) £200-£300

Godfrey Alan Walker was born on 3 November 1888, the 2nd son of T. H. Walker Esq., of High Garth, Mirfield, Yorkshire and educated at Epsom College and the London Hospital: M.R.C.S. and L.R.C.P. London 1912. M.B. London 1912. He took up positions at the Royal Infirmary Sheffield and at the Baythorpe Infirmary.
On 5 August 1914, prior to the declaration of War, Godfrey Walker was commissioned as Surgeon in the Royal Navy. After spending 12 months at Cromarty, he 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 and had at least five narrow escapes with death. He was one of the last to leave both Helles and later the island of Tenedos.
In July 1916, he was transferred with the newly re-designated 63rd (Royal Naval) Division on the Western Front 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 pathetic 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.