THE VICTORIA CROSS AWARDED TO PRIVATE JOHN BARRY, ROYAL IRISH REGIMENT, HAS BEEN SOLD AT AUCTION BY DIX NOONAN WEBB
22 September 2000


( select to enlarge )
Medal entitlement of Private John Barry,
1st Bn, Royal Irish Regiment

  • Victoria Cross
  • India Medal ( 1895-1902 )
    • 2 clasps:
    • "Punjab Frontier 1897-98" - "Samana 1897"
  • Queen's South Africa Medal ( 1899-1902 )
    • 3 clasps:
    • "Cape Colony" - "Wittebergen" - "Belfast"

The Victoria Cross and campaign medals awarded to Private John Barry, 1st Bn, Royal Irish Regiment, a 2nd Boer War recipient, have been sold at auction by Dix Noonan Webb. The sale realised a hammer price of £85,000. The John Barry Victoria Cross group was purchased by the Michael Ashcroft Trust, the holding institution for the Lord Ashcroft VC Collection and is on display in the Imperial War Museum's Lord Ashcroft Gallery.


For the award of the Victoria Cross

[ London Gazette, 8 August 1902 ], Monument Hill, Transvaal, South Africa, 7th & 8th January 1901, Private John Barry, 1st Bn, Royal Irish Regiment.

During the night attack on the 7th and 8th January 1901, on Monument Hill, Private Barry, although surrounded and threatened by the Boers at the time, smashed the breach of the Maxim-gun, thus rendering it useless to its captors, and it was in so doing this splendid act for the country that he met his death.


John Barry died of wounds received during his VC action at Monument Hill, South Africa. At this time, no posthumous awards of the VC could be made. However, as so often in the history of the Victoria Cross it was an individual, the mother of Alfred Atkinson, that brought about a decisive move to investigate those servicemen who would have been recommended for the award of the VC if they had not died beforehand. The outcome of the War Office investigation resulted in an announcement being published in the 'London Gazette' of 8th August 1902.

"The KING has been graciously please to approve of the Decoration of the Victoria Cross being delivered to the representatives of the following ...... who fell during the recent operations in South Africa in the performance of acts of valour which would, in the opinion of the Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in the Field, have entitled them to be recommended for that distinction had they survived."

  • Captain David Younger - Gordon Highlanders
  • Lieutenant Robert Digby-Jones - Royal Engineers
  • Trooper Herman Albrecht - Imperial Light Horse
  • Lieutenant Gustavus Coulson - King's Own Scottish Borderers
  • Sergeant Alfred Atkinson - Yorkshire Regiment
  • Private John Barry - Royal Irish Regiment

Acquisitions

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Iain Stewart, 12 May 2012