Lieutenant Harold Barker from Ascot Vale shows courage under fire at Gallipoli

HE MAY have been slight of build but Lieutenant Harold Barker had a big reputation on the Gallipoli battlefield.

Ascot Vale digger Harold Arthur Barker, who was awarded a distinguished conduct medal for his bravery at the Gallipoli landing. AWM photo, copyright expired.

HE MAY have been slight of build but Lieutenant Harold Barker had a big reputation on the Gallipoli battlefield.

The 21-year-old from Ascot Vale became known as the Little Hero after the landing at Anzac Cove in Turkey on April 25, 1915, earning himself a Distinguished Conduct Medal for “conspicuous gallantry”.

A machine gunner with the 7th Batallion, headed by the famed Major General Harold “Pompey” Elliott and comprising many young soldiers from across Moonee Valley, the then-Lance Corporal Barker assumed command of his section as his commanding officers and comrades fell around him.

Under heavy shell fire, the young man, who attended Ascot Vale Primary School, held his section’s position after cobbling together ­machine guns from damaged parts – a skill attributed to a boyhood interest in making model engines.

The eldest of 10 children, Barker, who was promoted to Lieutenant for his actions at Gallipoli, was also heralded for rescuing and tending to wounded soldiers “amid showers of shrapnel”.

A newspaper report in September 1915 quoted his mother as saying she was “not a bit surprised at his display of nerve, he was never lacking in courage”.

Lieutenant Barker stayed at Gallipoli until the December 1915 evacuation, going on to fight in Egypt and France, including being wounded at Somme in 1916.

He returned home as a Captain in January, 1919, only to serve again in Papua New Guinea in World War II as a Major.

Ascot Vale digger Harold Arthur Barker (right) in the trenches at Gallipoli in 1915.

CITATION

“For conspicuous gallantry, ability, and resource on the 25th and 26th April, 1915, near Gaba Tepe (Dardanelles).

During the operations on these two days, the Officer, Serjeant, and Corporal of his Machine Gun Section having been wounded, Corporal Barker assumed the command and continued working the guns under a heavy shell fire.

At one time the enemy actually succeeded in getting into the machine-gun trench, but were all killed.

One after another the machine guns were rendered useless by shell fire, but he collected portions of useless guns and built them up anew.

Finally he was working with two guns only composed of parts of at least seven other guns.”