BARKER, Joseph

Joseph Barker was born in Brierley Hill and enlisted in the Durham Light Infantry. He served in the 1/5th Battalion in the 50th (Northumbrian) Division. In 1917 they were at Passchendaele during the Third Battle of Ypres and in the Spring of 1918 they faced all three of the great German offensives. They were forced into retreat at St. Quentin, then on the Lys and finally on the Aisne. In one of these retreats Private Joseph Barker was wounded and captured. He was taken to a German prisoner-of-war camp near Avesnes where he died on the 29th August. He is buried in Glageon Communal Cemetery Extension (II N 3) and commemorated on the Brierley Hill, Brierley Hill church and Wordsley Memorials.