THE VISIT TO IRELAND MEDAL 1911 AWARDED TO CORPORAL WALLACE, ROYAL IRISH RIFLES.

THE VISIT TO IRELAND MEDAL 1911 AWARDED TO CORPORAL WALLACE, ROYAL IRISH RIFLES. Visit to Ireland Medal, George V, 1911 (contemporary engraved naming: 8469. Cpl. Wallace. R.I.R.). Attractively toned, Almost Extremely Fine.

A rare award of the 1911 Visit Medal to a soldier, the majority of these medals having been awarded to policemen (Royal Irish Constabulary and Dublin Metropolitan Police) and other civilian recipients.

Service number engraved on edge of medal indicates that Wallace was a member of one of the regular battalions of the Royal Irish Rifles. He could not have been a member of the 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion, since the numbering series for members of that battalion had only reached 6457 by July 1914. Likewise, the 4th and 5th (Extra Reserve) Battalions can also be excluded, since the numbering series for those two battalions had only reached 6700 for the 4th and 5297 for the 5th by the time was was declared in 1914. Since the 2nd Battalion was stationed in Burma at the time of the 1911 Royal Visit, Wallace was presumably a member of the 1st Battalion, that was serving in England at that time, and detached to take part in the ceremonials surrounding the Royal visit to Ireland, or serving at the Regimental Depot in Belfast, and likewise detached for service.

Soldier’s Papers for Corporal Wallace not traced. Also, he is not recorded as having seen service during the Boer War (not recorded on any of the medal rolls for the Royal Irish Rifles), nor is there any record of a WW1 Medal Index Card for him. Corporal Wallace therefore presuably saw peace-time service with the Royal Irish Rifles during the period between the Boer War and WW1.