Royal Irish Rifles History

[ceebee]

I have a copy of The History of the First Seven Battalions The Royal Irish Rifles in the Great War (Vol II) by Cyril Falls - the 1925 edition.

Topics covered:

The Western Front, Gallipoli, Salonika, Macedonia, Easter Week in Ireland, and Palestine.

Numerous maps.

List of honours and rewards issued to officers, including MID, foreign awards and London Gazette dates.

List of decorations awarded to warrant officers, non-commissioned officers and men, including MID, foreign awards and London Gazette dates.

Roll of honour for officers.

Number of other ranks who proceeded as reinforcements from the special reserve battalions.

List of battle honours (1st to 16th Battalions).

Regimental committee on battle honours.

Look ups welcome.

Chris

[GJB]

Can you have a look for Pte. 52271 Elias Palmer, I think he came in from the Royal Warwickshire Reg.

Gary

[Desmond7]

http://www.geocities.com/rurmuseum/volumes.html

go here for free downloads of R Ir Rifles volumes.

Best wishes

Des

[cobourgladdie]

Look ups welcome.

Chris

What do you have for Capt. James Patrick Tighe, the 2nd Bn RIR killed in 1916, 15th July. I am interested in his history as he was a career soldier and came through the ranks, he may be entioned as a CSM

regards

ben burd

[ceebee]

Ben

Captain James Patrick Tighe was in the 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Regiment, not the Royal Irish Rifles. Sorry to say I can't help you with your enquiry as my book deals exclusively with the Royal Irish Rifles. If you make a new post in the "soldiers" forum or "unit histories" you might get lucky.

Cheers

Chris

[Guest Metrognome]

Hi Chris,

I have just found out that my uncle who died on 10.08.1915 was in the 6th Bn Royal Irish Rifles and features on the Helles Memorial His name was John Foley and he was a Rifleman. I am very new to this site and hope I have constructed this question OK.

Any info you have about this unit (don't really expect anything about him in particular!!) would be appreciated.

Thank you for your time.

Cilla Millner

[ceebee]

Hello Cilla and welcome to the Forum.

Your question is quite clear and I have put together a short summary taken from chapter V of the book. If you wish to see the whole text have a look at the link provided in an earlier post by Desmond7 which will take you to an electronic version of the book. I'm not sure whether the electronic version has maps. If it doesn't and you would like to see the map relating to the incident in which your uncle was killed please PM me with your email details.

Here is the summary:

7 July 1915 at 5p.m. - 6th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles (less transport), consisting of 27 officers, 1 medical officer, and 912 other ranks embarked on the Translyvania from Liverpool

11 July - reached Gibraltar

14 July - transport coaled at Malta

17 July - reached Alexandria in the afternoon

18 July - left Alexandria

21 July - entered Mudros Harbour

22 July - disembarked and spent a week on the "hot, barren, fly-plagued island of Lemnos"

5 August - in the afternoon sailed from Mudros in the Partridge. By midnight Bn had disembarked, by lighters, at Watson’s Pier, Anzac Pier, and moved to bivouacs in Shrapnel Gully

6 August – remained in Shrapnel gully all day. Heavily shelled, suffering several casualties, and at midnight moved to Rest Gully.

7 August – remained in Rest Gully all day

8 August – 9.30am 10th Hampshire Bn and 6th RIR moved out of camp and marched to the Sari Bair Plateau, halting at midday and continuing after dusk

9 August – 4am Hampshire Bn came into line north of Rhododendron Ridge and deployed. The 6th RIR deployed on the left of the Hampshire Bn. These two battalions, with two from the 13th Division, formed the centre column, which was to assault the main height of Chunuk Bair

At 8am two companies of the Hampshire Bn attacked Chunuk Bair meeting very heavy machine gun fire and suffering heavy casualties. They entrenched about 300 yards from the crest. The RIR was ordered to make good “L” Ridge, one of the spurs on Chunuk Bair.

In its first action “the men of the Battalion went forward with great dash in face of heavy fire, beneath a sun already blazing hot, across steadily rising ground. Almost all was won, but not the position upon the desired “L” Ridge. Two hundred and fifty yards short of it the Battalion was driven to ground and dug itself in. There it remained all night. Its position was dangerous, the left flank being in the air, and the men suffering agonies from thirst.”

10 August – men scraped out a shallow trench during the night. At 4.30am Turks counter-attacked using fresh troops. Attack preceded by bombardment, which caused very heavy casualties. Fierce fighting occurred along the line resulting in mounting casualties. Battalion held its position for an hour and a half. Line was broken and re-established 800 yards behind the old position. Attack was finally checked largely by fire from the ships’ guns.

Bn had 3 officers and 42 other ranks killed, 18 officers and 274 other ranks wounded, and 38 other ranks missing.

The book contains references to officers who died or were wounded in the action but no mention of soldiers from the ranks.

Numerous books on the Gallipoli campaign contain accounts of the Battle of Sari Bair and the attack on Chunuk Bair. I have not checked the British Official History, but no doubt it has an account. There is a very good description of the actions in Vol II of the Official History of Australia in the War or 1914-1918. See chapters XXIV and XXV. An electronic version may be viewed on the Australian War Memorial site here. There are numerous references to the RIR including maps showing location of the Bn at various times. The electronic maps are in black and white and not very clear, so if you would like the colour versions I can email them.

Hope this will be helpful

Chris