THE VICTORIA CROSS AND CAMPAIGN MEDALS AWARDED TO MAJOR THE RT HON SIR TASKER WATKINS VC, GBE, 5TH BN, THE WELCH REGIMENT, HAVE BEEN ACQUIRED BY THE MICHAEL ASHCROFT TRUST. |
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4 September 2008 |
The Victoria Cross and campaign medals awarded to Major The Rt Hon Sir Tasker Watkins VC GBE, have been acquired by the Michael Ashcroft Trust, the holding institution for Lord Ashcroft's VC Collection. |
For the award of the Victoria Cross. [ London Gazette, 2 November 1944 ], Barfour, Normandy, France, 16 August 1944, Lieutenant Tasker Watkins, 1 / 5th Bn, The Welch Regiment.
In North-West Europe on the evening, of 16th August 1944, Lieutenant Watkins was commanding a company of the Welch Regiment. The battalion was ordered to attack objectives near the railway at Bafour. Lieutenant Watkin's company had to cross open cornfields in which booby-traps had been set. It was not yet dusk and the company soon came under heavy machine-gun fire from posts in the corn and farther back, and also fire from an 88 mm. gun: many casualties were caused and the advance was slowed up.
Tasker Watkins was invested with his Victoria Cross by King George VI at Buckingham Palace on 8th March 1945.
Demobbed in 1946, Tasker Watkins read for the Bar. He was called by Middle Temple in 1948 and started practising in common law on the Wales and Chester Circuit. After taking Silk in 1965 he moved to chambers at No. 1 Crown Office Row in the Temple. He was knighted in 1971 and was sworn of the Privy Council on his appointment to the Court of Appeal in 1980. He was appointed GBE in 1990. |
Iain Stewart, 4 September 2008