BETTER LATE THAN NEVER.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 255, 27 September 1932, Page 2

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER.

WAR DECORATION. BELATED ARRIVAL 15 YEARS AFTER AWARD. When a postman delivered a small registered packet to a man who lives at Clacton-on-Sea, England, one day recently, he had no idea that he was .taking part in the final act of one of the most remarkable and romantic episodes of the Great War. The man to whom he handed the package was Mr Thomas Barnshaw, of Clacton-on-Sea. It contained a decoration .which had been awarded to him by the late King Peter of Serbia, 15 years ago, for his work with the British Mission which went to the aid of the Serbian nation during the memorable retreat through Montenegro to the Albanian coast, in the winter of 1915-16. Mr Barnshaw was a battalion ser-geant-major attached to the small party of Britishers, whose mission it was to give succour and help to the Serbians. In October, 1917, he was informed by the War Office and through the London Gazette, that the late King Peter of Serbia had awarded him the gold medal of the Order of St. Sava. He heard nothing more of it until the medal arrived by. registered post from the War Office this week.