The Queen Victoria Museum at Inveresk has a priceless addition to its Great War exhibition – a Military Cross awarded to Lieutenant John Bartels in the First World War.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Cross, along with Lt Bartels’ three other medals, were presented to the museum by his family on Monday.
Lt Bartels was born in Moorina in the North East, signing up for military service alongside his brothers when he was 25 in 1915.
In 1919 Lt Bartels was awarded the Military Cross for “conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty” after a daring reconnaissance mission near the Somme.
Lt Bartels’ granddaughter Barbara Gibson, who presented the medals to the museum with the help of his six great great grandchildren, said she was very close with her grandfather.
“He was very upstanding, even in his last days he still had the soldier’s stance,” she said.
Museum director Richard Mulvaney said the donation was “a wonderful gift” to Tasmania.
The medals will shortly be on display in the museum’s Great War exhibition.
