VC Action: John Cridlan Barrett (VC, TD) (10 August 1897 – 7 March 1977) was 21-years old, and a lieutenant in the 1/5th Battalion, The Leicestershire Regiment, British Army during the First World War.
John Barrett had already begun studies for a medical degree when he decided to enlist in January 1916. He was a serving Lieutenant with the 1/5th Battalion of the Leicestershire Regiment, when on the 20th September 1918 the Battalion went into the trenches in the Hindenburg Outpost Line, where they relieved two Australian battalions. They were in Brigade support at a position called Ascension Ridge, named after a farm nearby.
Lieutenant Barrett gained his Victoria Cross in the hard fighting for the capture of the village of Pontruet to the south-west of Bellenglise. The rambling village was in a valley and the 5th Leicesters' objective was to take the German trenches in the flank. At dawn the 24th Division to the right was to advance, and the 46th Division on the left was to capture the village and aim for an objective called Forgan's Trench, when he performed the deeds for which he was awarded the VC.
On 24 September 1918, during the attack on Pontruet, France, owing to the darkness and smoke barrage, a considerable number of men lost direction, and Lieutenant Barrett found himself advancing towards Forgan's trench, a trench of great strength, containing numerous machine-guns. Without hesitation, he collected all available men and charged the nearest group of machine-guns, being wounded on the way. In spite of this he gained the trench and vigorously attacked the garrison, personally disposing of two machine-guns and inflicting many casualties. He was again severely wounded, but, nevertheless, climbed out of the trench in order to fix his position and locate the enemy. This he succeeded in doing, and, despite exhaustion from wounds, he gave detailed orders to his men to cut their way back to the battalion, which they did. He was again wounded so seriously that he had to be carried out. In spite of his wounds he had managed to fight on, and his spirit was magnificent throughout. It was due to his coolness and grasp of the situation that any of his party were able to get out alive.
After the Armistice, Barrett continued to serve in the Territorial Army and rejoined the 1st Leicesters after the Territorial Army had been reorganised, later resuming his interrupted medical studies. Continuing his successful careers in two fields, the TA and in medicine, Barrett was a Lieutenant Colonel by the time the Second World War began and joined the Royal Army Medical Corps, serving in No. 30 General Hospital in Iceland for a year.
Following the conclusion of WWII, John Barrett continued a very successful career in medicine eventually dying on the 7th March 1977, aged seventy-nine. |
