PRIVATE W. MURKIN, 11TH (DONEGAL AND FERMANAGH) BATTALION ROYAL INNISKILLING FUSILIERS. British War Medal (officially impressed: 18740 PTE. W. MURKIN. R. INNIS. FUS.). Attractively toned, Extremely Fine.
£80.00
PRIVATE W. MURKIN, 11TH (DONEGAL AND FERMANAGH) BATTALION ROYAL INNISKILLING FUSILIERS. British War Medal (officially impressed: 18740 PTE. W. MURKIN. R. INNIS. FUS.). Attractively toned, Extremely Fine.
Medal accompanied by copied Medal Index card, WW1 medal rolls, and Silver War Badge Roll.
Walter Murkin enlisted on 8/1/1915. He saw service during WW1 exclusively with the 11th Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, serving with that battalion in France and Flanders, entering that theatre of operations on 5/10/1915 (the 11th Inniskillings landed in France as a unit in October 1915). He was discharged as a result of sickness on 25/11/1918. Private Murkin was also entitled to the 1914-15 Star and Victory Medal.
The 11th Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers was raised at Omagh in September 1914, from the Donegal and Fermanagh Ulster Volunteers. The battalion landed in France as a unit in October 1915 and was disbanded in France on 11/2/1918, being under strength as a result of the enormous number of casualties sustained. The 11th Inniskillings saw service during the Battle of the Somme and sustained enormous casualties on the first day of the battle, 1/7/1917, as it moved out of Thiepval Wood and attempting to cross no man’s land in the face of sustained machine gun fire.
It was a man of the 11th Inniskillings, a Private John Meeke, who carried the mortally wounded Major William Redmond of the 6th Battalion Royal Irish Regiment out of action and back to the British lines, at the battle of Messines Ridge on 7/7/1917, Private Meeke himself being wounded as he did so.