regimental battle honours

Sholinghur (1) Siege of Ladysmith, Second Boer War, South Africa, 1899-1902

  First World War: Western Front: Le Cateau, Retreat from Mons, Marne 1914, Aisne 1914, Armentieres 1914, Ypres 1915 ' 17 ' 18,

St Julien, Frezenberg, Bellewaarde, Somme 1916' 18, Albert 1916, Guillemont, Ginchy, Le Transloy, Ancre 1916, Arras 1917, Scarpe 1917, Arleux, Messines 1917, Langemarck 1917, Polygon Wood, Cambrai 1917 and 1918, St Quentin, Bapaume 1918, Rosieres, Avre, Hindenberg Line, St Quentin Canal, Beaurevoir, Courtrai, Selle, Sambre, France and Flanders 1914-18.

Gallipoli & Middle East: Helles, Landing at Helles, Krithia, Suvla, Sari Bair, Landing at Suvla, Scimitar Hill, Gallipoli 1915-16, Egypt 1916

Gaza, Jerusalem, Tell' Asur, Palestine 1917-18

Other: Kosturino, Struma, Macedonia 1915-17 (1) Sholinghur awarded 1889 for service of the 102nd Regiment.

 was an Irish Infantry Regiment of the British Army raised and garrisoned in

which was disbanded in1922 under the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty.The regiment was created on the 1st July 1881 dut to the Childers reforms by the amalgamation of the 102nd Regiment of Foot ( Royal Madras Fusiliers) and the 103rd Regiment of Foot ( Royal

Bombay Fusiliers) who had been in the service of the East India Company ( thousands of Irish served within the ranks of this Company) until after the Indian Rebellion of 1857 the Company's private armies were transferred to the British Army in 1862- under the reforms five infantry battalions were given Irish Territorial titles- to form the 1st and 2nd Battalions, the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. In its fine history the Royal Dublin Fusiliers were sometimes referred to as the ' Blue Caps ' ' The Dubs' ' The Lambs ' and ' The Old Toughs '.

It bacame the county regiment of Dublin and Kildare in Ireland. Militarily the whole of Dublin was administered as a seperate command with the Command headquarters at Parkgate ( Phoenix Park) Dublin, directly under the War Office London.

The 102nd was based in Ceylon ( now Sri Lanka ) when it became the 1st Battalion. It moved back to the Uk in 1886, being based in England.Before being moved to the Curragh in Ireland. It returned to England in 1893, remaining there until the Second Boer War began in Southe Africa in 1899. It arrived in South Africa in November 1899.

After the Boer War the battalion was based in Crete and Malta, both in the mediterranean. It was posted to Egypt in 1906, where it later received its Colours at Alexandria by the Regiment's Colonel-in-Chief, HRH Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn. The 1st Dublins later joined the British garrison in India- the then overseas 'home' of the British Army., remaining there until the outbreak of war in 1914.

When the 103rd became the 2nd Battalion, it was based in England before moving to sunnier climes in 1884, when it was posted to Gibralter. The following year it arrived in Egypt and then moved tp India in 1889, being located in a variety of places there. In 1897 the 2nd Dublins was based in Natal Colony, where it would still be when the Boer War began in 1899.

Upon the conclusion of the war, the 2nd Battalion returned to the UK, being based in Buttevant, Cork, Ireland. It left for Aldershot, England in 1910, where it received its new Colours from the Regiment's Colonel-in-Chief the following year. It remained in England until war began in 1914.

The Boers declared war on the 12th October and invaded Natal and the Cape Colony. Many Irish were in prominent positions in South Africa from the begining of the War. The General Officer Commanding British Forces in Natal in 1899 was Lieutenant General Sir George White VC, an Ulsterman from County Antrim. This war would be a real test of leadership for men like White. Brave men they had prospered in their careers chiefly by fighting poorly armed natives in the many little engagements throughout the Empire. They were not prepared when pitted against these highly motivated white Boer opponents who wore no uniforms, were often shabbily dressed, but were well mounted, excellent horsemen and with modern weapons were soon to be considered the best shots in the world.

Not having seen military action for some time it came as a great shock, to Sir George when, at the end of October 1899, only a short time after the minor success of Talana Hill and Elandslaagte, he found himself and his forces under siege at Ladysmith.

When the Boers invaded natal the 1st Royal Irish Fusiliers and the 2nd Royal Dublin Fusilers were immediately involved in the Battle at Talana Hill, the first real engagement of the war. Talana was one of two kopjes near the little coal - mining town of Dundee, about forty miles north of Ladysmith, where Major General Sir William Penn Symons was in command of 4,000 men. White, in overall command in Ladysmith, had 8,000. On rumours of Boers advancing , White not quite sure of the Boers strength and uneasy about splitting his forces rather tentatively suggested that Symons join him in Ladysmith, but Symons refused, confident that his British Army regulars could hold Dundee against the Boers, whom he saw ' as simple farmers '. During the night of the 19th October Boer scouts stumbled on a picket of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers under Lieutenant Cecil Grimshaw who wisely retired and sent word back to the main camp at Dundee.The Irish Fusilers knew nothing of this and half an hour after the usual ' stand to arms' at 5.00am , shells suddenly fellamong their tents. The a soldier looked up to see Boers lining the heights of Talana Hill; under cover of night they had climbed up and were now ready foe action. Quickly british artillery opened fire and on the 20th of October the battle of Talana Hill began. It was also the Royal Dublin Fusilier's first engagement. The Dublin and Irish Fusiliers, supported by a battalion of the Royal Rifle Brigade Corps, began an advance up the difficult and steep hill ( normally in extended open order, a tactic which would remain the same during the Great War ) but the Boers on the hill top were able to pick off almost everyone who showed himself..courage and persistance told at last , assisted by artillery which unfortunately shelled its own men. The Boers were driven off the crest and streamed across the plain below, but there was no calvary pursuit and after being allowed to remove and bury their dead, they could disperse and reform in safety. The battle was counted a victory and the Dublins were singled out and celebrated back in England in a ditty that began ' Bravo the Dublin Fusiliers ' .

Casualties were heavy among the two Irish Battalions, losing amongst others Captain Weldon, the first officer of the Dublins to be killed in the war. General Penn Symons, impatient to see the hill himself was mortally wounded.

They were old, they were young, they didnt even look like soldiers but they were brilliant marksmen. These Boers made a formidable foe and the British would painfully learn a lot from them in the bitter struggle that followed and this new type of warfare.

On the 15th November 1899, a detachment of Dubliners and the Durban Light Infantry were garrissoning an armoured train operating from Estcourt with the objective of monitoring Boer movements. The Boers ambushed them on their return and a section of the train was de-railed in the chaos. Among the passengers was Winston Churchill a then war correspondent accompanying the detachment who helped load the train engine with wounded before it made an escape attempt, pushing through the de-railed section that blocked its path and making it through safely. The remaining troops put up a stout defence until they were eventually compelled to surrender, including Churchill who had returned to the remaining defenders. Churchill later made a successful escape attempt from his prison in Pretoria. He wrote glowingly of the gallantry displayed by the Dublin Fusiliers and other troops that were present during the ambush.

The Dublin Fusiliers actively took part in the efforts to lift the siege of Ladysmith, which lasted from 30th October 1899 to 28th February 1900. On the 15th December the 2nd Dublins took part in the battle of Colenso. This is where the dashing Irishman Major General Arthur Fitzroy Hart came into prominence, Commanding the 5th Irish Brigade of 2nd Dublins, 1st Inniskilling Fusiliers, 1st Connaught Rangers and 55th Border Regiment. ( also very Irish ). They were part of the large army under General Sir Redvers Buller VC, whose aim it was to relieve the beleaguered town of Ladysmith. The fiery Hart, after some thirty-five years in the army, was seen as a haughty man brimming with self confidence. The son of a depot major at Templemore who became a Lieutenant General, young Hart was educated in a conventional middle class manner at Cheltenham and Sandhurst, joining the army in 1864. He saw service in the Ashanti and Zulu Wars, the 1881 First Boer War and the Egyptian War of 1882 where he was Wolseley's Deputy Assistant Adjutant General.This led to his promation to Major-General and command of the Irish Brigade in South Africa. His haughtiness may have been encouraged by his early marriage to the heiress May Synnot, daughter of a wealthy landowner of Armagh whereby Hart became connected with the land interest. After serving under Wolseley, hart does not seem to have absorbed any of Wolseley's new ideas and continued to believe in tactics associated with the Crimea forty-five years earlier. When he led his Irish Brigade of seasoned soldiers and eager reservists to the Tugela River to open the battle that morning ' He had already put them through a parade ground drill as he had every morning for a fortnight, then as if still drilling...marched them forward in quarter column and close order ' The Boers entrenched in the kopjes above the swiftly - flowing river were well placed to cover the drifts ( fords ) that led across it. It was a sad day for the Irish.

The Royal Dublin Fusiliers attempt to ford the Tugela River at the Battle of Colenso