Randle Barnett Barker

Brigadier-General Randle Barnett Barker, DSO and Bar (19 June 1870 – 24 March 1918) was a British Army officer who was killed at Gueudecourt, France, while in command of the 99th Brigade.

Family
Randle Barnett Barker was born on 19 June 1870, at Blackheath (then in Kent), the son of Major John Barnett Barker, formerly of the Northumberland Fusiliers. He attended Sedbergh School.

Career
He was commissioned into the Militia as a Second Lieutenant in the 3rd (Royal Denbigh and Flint Militia) Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers on 26 January 1889, and was promoted to Lieutenant on 29 March 1890. He then obtained a regular commission as a lieutenant in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers on 17 January 1891. On 1 October 1898 he became adjutant of the regiment's 1st Volunteer Battalion based at Wrexham and he was promoted to Captain on 19 July 1899. He retired on 5 May 1906 but as a Reserve officer he served as Brigade major of the Cheshire Brigade of the Volunteers (Territorial Force from 1908) for five years from 1 June 1906.

On the outbreak of World War I he was like many other Reserve officers 'dug out' and appointed to a low-key position, in Barker's case as commandant of a Prisoner-of-war camp. However, he asked for a more active appointment, and on 21 September 1914 he was appointed second-in-command of the Kensington Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers with the rank of Temporary Major. This was one of many 'Pals battalions' being raised from the volunteers responding to Lord Kitchener's famous appeal. The Kensington Battalion, later 22nd (Service) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers (Kensington), was raised by William Davison, Mayor of the Royal Borough of Kensington and related to Barker by marriage. The commanding officer (CO) was a more senior 'dugout', but in August 1915 when the battalion began its final training on Salisbury Plain, the CO was transferred to stay in England with the reserve battalion and Barker was promoted to Temporary Lieutenant-Colonel to take the 22nd Royal Fusiliers on active service. Barnett Barker was known as 'B.B.' to his officers and men.

22nd Royal Fusiliers landed in France in November 1915 as part of 99th Brigade (2nd Division) under the command of Brigadier-General Richard Kellett. The two men cooperated successfully, and Barker frequently stood in as brigade commander in Kellett's absence. Despite both men being 'dugouts' they enjoyed one of the longest such partnerships in the British Expeditionary Force (BEF).

Barker won a Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for conspicuous bravery at the Battle of Delville Wood on the Somme, when he made a personal reconnaissance of the whole wood under shell and machine gun fire, and reorganised the defences. His action was the subject of a fanciful illustration in the Daily Sketch. During the Battle of the Ancre he led his battalion and a collection of other detachments ('Barker's Mixed Force') to clear the notorious German strongpoint known as the Quadrilateral. At the Battle of Arleux during the Arras Offensive, 22nd Royal Fusiliers was engaged in bloody fighting at Oppy Wood, after which Barker lamented that only 40 of his men had come out of the action with him. Barker received a Bar to his DSO for Oppy Wood and was promoted to Brevet Major from 3 June. He was also Mentioned in dispatches five times during the war.

On 18 November 1917 Barker was promoted to Brigadier-General to take command of 3rd Brigade in 1st Division, but when Kellett was obliged to give up command of 99th Brigade Barker was transferred on 24 January 1918 to take over from him. One of his first tasks was to disband the 22nd Royal Fusiliers, which after its casualties was the weakest battalion in 2nd Division and was broken up to reinforce other battalions. Barker found posts on the brigade staff for a number of men from the Kensingtons.

When the German spring offensive was launched on 21 March 2nd Division was in reserve in the vulnerable Flesquières Salient, which came under heavy attack. Next day 99th Brigade was detached to support 47th (1/2nd London) Division in the front line. It was virtually overwhelmed in the fighting next day, and Barker and his brigade major were unable to reach the battalions as he struggled to maintain a link between V and VII Corps as they were pushed back. By 24 March the 'Great Retreat' was under way. Barker and his staff were at a roadside in Gueudecourt writing orders for the retirement when a single shell fell, killing Barker and his Staff Captain, Edward Bell. A party of former 22nd Royal Fusiliers, led by Sanitary-Sergeant T.E. McGowan, carried the bodies on stretchers back through the retreat until they were able to commandeer a returning ammunition lorry. Next day they dug two graves at Albert and held a service over them.

Memorials
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstones to Brig-Gen Randle Barnett Barker and Capt Edward Inkerman Jordan Bell in Albert Communal Cemetery Extension state that they are 'believed to be buried in this cemetery'. Barker left a widow, Elinor Gertrude Barnett-Barker, nee Hobson, of Pant-y-Goitre, Abergavenny, and two sons, John Philip C. Sanky Barker, and Terence Clare Randle Calverhall Barker. They donated the east chancel window of St Mary's Priory Church in Abergavenny in his memory. His name is listed in the Sedbergh School Memorial Cloisters.

External sources

 * Ancestry
 * Commonwealth War Graves Commission records
 * Imperial War Museum, War Memorials Register
 * War Memorials Online