CONSTABLE (LATER INSPECTOR) T.F. BYRNE, DUBLIN METROPOLITAN POLICE. Three: Visit to Ireland Medal, Victoria, 1900 (officially engraved: P.C. T.F. BYRNE D.M.P.) Visit to Ireland Medal, Edward VII, 1903 (officially engraved: P.C. T.F. BYRNE D.M.P.)
£1,650.00
CONSTABLE (LATER INSPECTOR) T.F. BYRNE, DUBLIN METROPOLITAN POLICE. Three: Visit to Ireland Medal, Victoria, 1900 (officially engraved: P.C. T.F. BYRNE D.M.P.) Visit to Ireland Medal, Edward VII, 1903 (officially engraved: P.C. T.F. BYRNE D.M.P.) Visit to Ireland Medal, George V, 1911 (unnamed, as issued). Medals mounted individually, as worn, and each with a length of original ribbon, the 1900 and 1903 medals with their original shamrock top brooch suspenders and the 1911 medal with its original plain white metal brooch suspender, generally Good Very Fine to Almost Extremely Fine, and a scarce group to a Police Constable who rose to become a senior officer in the Dublin Metropolitan.
Medals accompanied by biographical details, copied service record from Dublin Metropolitan Police Numerical Register of Officers and Men, extract 1911 census return, copied articles from newspapers of the day and a copied map showing the various Dublin Metropolitan Police Divisional Districts.
Thomas Francis Byrne was born on 19/4/1870 in the parish of Magheross, Carrickmacross, Co. Monaghan. He enlisted into the Dublin Metropolitan Police on 31/10/1890. Byrne was recommended by J.M. Cortlan, J.P. and at the time of enlistment was 20 years of age, stood some 5 feet 10 inches tall, stated that he was a Roman Catholic and a farmer by trade. On enlistment Byrne was posted for service with “C” Division. He subsequently saw service with “A” Division from 27/12/1901, was promoted Sergeant and posted to “F” Division on 19/8/1904, promoted Station Sergeant and transferred to “C” Division on 1/4/1912, transferred to “D”Division on 26/2/1915, to “C” Division on 29/8/1917 and finally promoted Inspector and posted to “E” Division on 1/5/1919. Inspector Byrne was pensioned on 18/9/1923. Byrne is recorded in the 1911 census as a 40 year old married Dublin Metropolitan Police Sergeant living with his 39 year old wife, 2 daughters and 2 sons in Glasthule Road, Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire), in the DMP District that he was then serving in.
Byrne was stationed in “C” Division, the north-east inner city, at the time of the 1900 Visit, in “A” Division, the south-west city centre, at the time of the 1903 Visit, and in “F” Division, encompassing the suburbs of Blackrock, Kingstown and Dalkey, at the time of the 1911 Visit. Byrne was mentioned on a number of occasions in newspapers during his period of service with the DMP. One of the more amusing incidents that he was involved in was reported in the Evening Telegraph of 7/1/1920, during the Irish War of Independence. The report records the arrest and arraignment of two ex-soldiers for the burglary of a private house, “Liffey Bank” Conyngham Road, Dublin on 21/12/1919, the two soldiers being discovered the next morning in the hay loft of the house in possession of a bottle of whiskey and various pawn tickets (items stolen from the house having presumably been pawned to buy the bottle of whiskey) “Dublin in the rare old times”.
Royal Visit Medals awarded to the Dublin Metropolitan Police are considerably scarcer than those awarded to the Royal Irish Constabulary, the DMP having a total strength of approximately 1,200 officers and men at the time of the Royal Visits of 1900, 1903 and 1911, whereas the RIC was composed of approximately 9,800 officers and men in each of those years.