Medal Collection

arnhem44

I must say the calibre of medals,documents and other various militaria posted up lately has been second to none and well done to all,excellent stuff.

kabakuyu

While most have my collection has been posted on another site,I thought a wider audience would like to see it.

My most recent aquisition is a trio to Pte Ambrose Kennedy 4475 5th Batt. Connaught Rangers.

Ambrose Kennedy was a 21 years old brushmaker from 4 Glen road, Shankill,Belfast.He enlisted

into the 7th Battalion,Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers on the 1/10/1914 for the duration of the war.

The 7th Skins formed part of the 49th Brigade of the 16th Irish division which was formed in early

September, Kennedy may have been a member of the Irish Volunteers as John Redmond the

leader of the Volunteers had called on its members to join the 16th Division in the famous speech

he delivered at Woodenbridge on the 20/9/14, afterwards the Volunteers split into the National

Volunteers of whom appox 175,000 remained loyal to Redmond and his Home Rule Party and

the other faction who numbered approx 13,000 retained the Irish Volunteers name

and advocated more extreme actions to achieve Irish autonomy.

Kennedy would have done his basic training in Tipperary where the brigade were commanded

by Brig-Gen Longe.By June 1915 the 10th Irish Division was experiencing difficulties keeping

numbers up to strength after unfit men were weeded out before the division embarked overseas.

Kennedy was one of a draft of 72 men from the 7th Skins who transferred to the 5th Connaught

Rangers,29th Brigade then stationed at Basinstoke.After more training and and the issue of

helmets and khaki drill, the 5th Connaughts departed Devonport 9/7/15 on the transport "Bornu".

After a stopover in Alexandria the "Bornu" landed at Mudros 29/7/15.The Connaughts were

attached to the ANZAC forces and landed at Anzac Cove 6/8/15The following came from the

unit history.

.For the next seven weeks the 5th Battalion Connaught Rangers fought desperately in the heat and misery of the Gallipoli Peninsula described by a war correspondent of the London Times Harry Nevision, and took part in actions at Lone Pine
‘ They were ordered to support Australian troops in a diversionary attack on the fourth day of the battle at Lone Pine. When they were ordered into the front line of trenches they found them floored with dead, in some places several feet deep, and the fighting had to be carried on over these dead bodies.


Hill 60 & Kabak Kuyu, which involved severe, hand-to-hand fighting for some water wells. Two all out attacks on the Turkish strong points on Hill 60 on August 21 and 28, 1915 resulted in very heavy casualties for the battalion. They fought alongside the ANZACs and Gurkhas. The Australians described the attack of the Irishmen on Hill 60 as the finest they had ever seen in the war. The Irish battalion had four hundred metres of open ground to run. The Turks opened fire from the wells and from Hill 60 at once. None of the Irishmen fired a shot, they ran silently. The Turks withstood the wild charge for a minute. Then they either ran in panic or they were dead. On the hillside, Irish and Australian dead lay so thickly that it looked as though they had fallen under a magic spell of sleep. They were buried a week later when the hill was finally captured. ‘

Ambrose Kennedy was wounded in the battle for Kabak Kuyu wells and Hill 60 on the

21/8/15.His service record states he was transferred to the carrier Franconia and was

invalided to England and admitted to the Welsh Metro Hospitial with a bullet wound on

the 9/9/15.By the 9/11/15 he had recovered and was transferred to the 3rd Reserve Batt

Connaught Rangers.Ambrose was posted to the 1st CR on the 19/1/1916 who were then

part of the Lahore Division stationed in Mesopotamia and involved in the attempt to

relieve Kut.Kennedy embarked at Devonport on the 20/1/16 as part of a draft for the 1st

Battalion.They disembarked at Basra one month later on the 20/2/16.Ambrose was part of

a draft of 374 men and 6 officers who joined the Battalion in the field on the 4/3/16.There

was to be no rest for Kennedy as the Battalion were involved in the Attack on the Dujaila

Redoubt 8/3/16 and was the last to leave the battle area.They also performed well in a

Bayonet charge at the "Thorny Nullah" and Abu Romain.With the snows melting the

Tigris was rising rapidly which caused major problems for the British troops.The Rangers

were next involved in the attack on Beit Aiessa in terrible conditions with torrential rain

and having to wade through mud.While initially successful the attackers had to endure

Heavy Turkish bombardments 17/4/16 and a concentrated Turkish counter attack.The

Rangers were heavily involved in turning back the Turkish attacks but suffered 187

casualties.On April 25th 1916 while the Rangers were in the front lines the first

symptoms of cholera hit the Tigris Corps.Within 24 hours several men of the Rangers

were struck down with the disease and it became acute amongst the Rangers by the 26th.

Pte Kennedy's service record states that he died in the field from cholera on the 27/4/1916

He is buried in the Amara war cemetery

R.Dub.Fusilier

hi kabakuyu good posts this book might be of interest to you http://www.booksireland.org.uk/store/upcoming-titles/the-6th-connaught-rangers/ i have ordered it and waiting for it to arrive.

kabakuyu

Thanks RDF I will keep an eye out for it.
Regards,
KK.

Dublin_Gunner

I don't imagine this is either rare or valuable, as I believe it was the most awarded Emergency Medal given out as the FCA had more members than any other of the Emergency Forces.

But it is the only medal I own, so thought I'd post it up

It belonged to my grandfather, who was a small arms instructor in the Irish Army. He also fought as a Sergeant in Michael Collins' 'flying columns' up to and during the Civil War. There were many more medals that had been awarded to him, but over the years all have gone missing - lost by my uncles / aunts so this is the sole surviving piece of militaria from his fairly illustrious career.

(crap pic, taken on my phone)

Dublin_Gunner

Does anyone know if its possible to look up Irish service records anywhere? Say from 1916-1946? (to put with the medal I posted above, and for general interest!)

arnhem44

Yes it is,here are two quick links to help you out

http://www.military.ie/info-centre/military-archives

http://www.irishsoldiers.com/Research/tracing.htm