Inniskillings Museum volunteer Mervyn Hall has been recognised as the regional winner of the prestigious “Volunteers for Museum Learning” award, presented by the British Museum in collaboration with the Marsh Charitable Trust. This award marks the fifteenth year of...
10 INNISKILLINGS TREASURES TO TURN YOUR HEAD… The Inniskillings Museum houses a rich collection of personal treasures and battlefield curios, weapons and army vehicles, medals and uniforms, art and musical instruments, regimental silver and trophies amassed since the...
This article was written by Michael Nugent, a Trustee of the Inniskillings Museum, a Director of the Military Heritage of Ireland Trust, a member of the Western Front Association and an associate member of History Hub Ulster. He also conducts independent research at...
In 1940, after the experiences of defeat in France by the German ‘blitzkrieg’, the army decided there was a need for an expansion in the number of armoured regiments. Initially three new regiments were raised for the duration of the war. In 1941, three more were...
The 27th (Inniskilling) Regiment in North America, 1776-1815 As European settlers flooded into the vast and nearly empty lands of lakes, rivers, mountains and plains, a struggle for power followed between the European nations for control of the huge natural resources...
Milazzo town and citadel are located on the north coast of Sicily, not far from the strategically important Straits of Messina, the narrow waterway separating Sicily from mainland Italy. On two occasions, separated by four generations, Inniskillings were in Sicily and...
The Forgotten Regiment: Enniskillen’s Third Regiment In 1688, people of Enniskillen and the surrounding countryside banded together to defend the town from attack by forces loyal to the Catholic King, James II. They declared their loyalty to the Protestant King...
The Rangers were formed out of three historic regiments which were based in Northern Ireland, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, Royal Ulster Rifles and Royal Irish Fusiliers. [gallery link="file" ids="35468,35469,35470""gallery size="thumbnail" link="file"...
75 Years Ago the Inniskillings Suffer a Second Bloody Nose in Burma. In January 1942, the army of Imperial Japan invaded the British possession of Burma. The British and British Indian army forces were out flanked, defeated and were forced to evacuate Burma. The...
The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers’ 4th and then 3rd Battalions had their origins in the Tyrone Militia. Introduction In 1715, the Irish Militia was established by an Act of the Irish Parliament. This was because of the Stuart threat to the Hanoverian succession. At...
The 2nd Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers was in 13th Brigade, 5th Division, from 30th November 1939 - 14th August 1944. The 2nd Inniskillings were reformed in 1937, after being disbanded in 1922. In 1940, they were in Belgium and France as part of the British...
A charismatic and determined leader. Patrick Twohig was born and raised in Dublin, youngest son of John Patrick Twohig, and his wife Ellen, née O’Brien. He had three brothers and one sister. He attended Trinity College, Dublin, enrolling in 1920, and obtained a...
A famous soldier, politician and colonial governor from County Fermanagh. Lowry Cole was the second son of the first Earl of Enniskillen, William Willoughby Cole, of Florence Court, County Fermanagh. He was a great great great great grandson of Captain Sir William...
ENNISKILLEN CONCERT TO CELEBRATE AN INNISKILLING FUSILIER AND WAR POET Francis Ledwidge was born in Slane, County Meath in 1887. He was the son of a farm labourer and worked in the local copper mines. In his early years Ledwidge was a keen sportsman and amateur actor,...
A courageous Inniskilling is killed during a trench raid, 15th/16th July 1916. Trench Raids. Trench raids were carried out by both sides, usually at night, for a variety of reasons: To obtain information on enemy defences and units. To capture prisoners for...
Phase one of our Great War Legacy Project saw the opening on 13 April of the 'Quartermaster's Store', Information Desk and Shop, by former Inniskillings Museum Curator and Trustee, Maj (Retd) George Stephens MBE DL in celebration of his 90th birthday. Following an...
Lieutenant Colonel Terence T. Macartney-Filgate OBE, 1898 – 1981 Known as ‘Phil’, he came from a military family from Co Louth, and joined the Inniskillings’ Special Reserve in 1915. On obtaining his commission in 1917, he was posted to the 5th Battalion, 10th...
2nd Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, Upper Silesia, August 1921- March 1922 (most of the photographs are from an album which belonged to Lt Crosslé) After the end of the First World War, the Paris Peace Conference allowed ethnic peoples who had been part of the...
Lieutenant Richard Playe Abney Smith - 1859-1882 There are three memorials to Richard Smith in St Macartin’s Cathedral, Enniskillen and one in St Mary’s Church in Shrewsbury. His grave stone is in the Cathedral grounds, just to the left of the entrance porch, and a...
Imperial Duties between the wars. India and Iraq, 1920-1925 India remained the jewel in the Imperial Crown, though there was to be no Imperial Durbar on the accession of George VI as King Emperor in 1936. There were increasing demands from Indian nationalists for...
A dragoon was originally a foot soldier on horseback, they travelled to the battlefield on their horses, but usually fought on foot, using their muskets, e.g. the Inniskillings at the battles of the Boyne and Aughrim, 1690 and 1691. Regiments of cavalry were generally...
On 1st July 1916, Drummer Jack Downs of the 10th Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, sounded the ‘Advance’ of the 36th (Ulster) Division at the Battle of the Somme. Over the first two days of the battle, the Division lost some 5,000 men and, of these, more than...
Freedom of a town or city. Freedom is an ancient privilege a town or city can grant to a regiment to march through the streets ‘with drums beating, Colours flying and bayonets fixed.’ In Roman and medieval times, troops were not allowed inside the city walls or...
Irish homes in mourning. 41 Irish soldiers died in the Dublin Rising, and 581 in the Battle of Hulluch in France. Well over 1,000 were wounded in the battle, including many gassed. For the rest of their lives these men suffered chronic lung and breathing...
FLAG RETURNS TO LIBERTY HALL AFTER 100 YEARS On Easter Tuesday 25th April 1916 soldiers of the 3rd, 4th and 12th Reserve Battalions of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers arrived in Dublin as part of a hastily assembled Ulster Composite Battalion to quell the Easter...
Some very rare 200 year old items from the period of the Peninsula War are on display in the Inniskillings Museum. These items are the belongings of two Inniskilling officers. They are linked in an extraordinary way, though the items came to the Museum at different...
Doctor and War Artist Henry Lamb was born in Australia, but the family moved to Manchester, where his father was appointed professor of mathematics at the university. Henry studied medicine for four years at its medical school. However he abandoned it for painting....
1688-1690. Originally the Inniskillingers were volunteer soldiers and would have worn their everyday clothes. Grey cloth was supplied from England, and red coats were worn in battle. The uniform worn by regular soldiers in the army was closely modelled on a man’s...
Drums, bugles and trumpets were originally used to deliver orders on the battlefield by sounding calls which the soldiers recognised. Drums, and later fifes, were also used to set the pace while on the march. [gallery link="file" ids="33864,33871,33860"gallery...
The term ‘Colours’ covers Cavalry Standards and Guidons as well as Infantry Colours. A regiment's Colours are a development of the banners of medieval nobility...
The 5th and 6th Inniskillings arrive in Salonica, Greece, October 1915 The 5th and 6th Battalions of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers were in 31 Brigade, 10th Irish Division. Their sister battalions in the Brigade were 5th and 6th Royal Irish Fusiliers. In October...
The Tirah Expedition - 1897 – 1898 In 1897 the whole of the North West Frontier region of British India rose in revolt. 2nd Battalion the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers was part of a column in the east, the Peshawar Column, which was sent to restore British control in...
Many decades of suspicion, mistrust and outbreaks of fighting in South Africa marked relations between the British and the Boers (Dutch Afrikaans word for farmer). In 1842 a detachment of the 27th Inniskillings was involved in an engagement near Durban.[gallery...
In the Spring 1930 edition of The Sprig of Shillelagh, covering the period of April, May, and June, the unveiling of the “Le Touret Memorial”, at the Military Cemetery in Richebourg, was reported. According to the article, there were 13,479 names on the memorial....
A far flung Empire before the First World War. Egypt. Even before the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, Egypt, a part of the Turkish Empire, was the land bridge for communication with Britain's possessions in India and the Far East. The Inniskillings had been part...
1914 End of Peace Exhibition Panel 3
Ensign Robert Bakewell (part 1) - Introduction Robert Bakewell served with the 3rd Battalion, 27th (Inniskilling) Regiment of Foot in the Duke of Wellington's army in Portugal and Spain from June 1810 to September 1811, and again in 1815. He was from Castle Donington...
This sword was re-discovered in a chest of bayonets, sabres and other swords in the Inniskillings Regimental Museum and was considered worthy of a little restoration and research as we approach the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo on 18th June 2015. The...
A major publication launched by the Inniskillings Museum Fermanagh War Memorial Book of Honour 1914-1921 One of the most significant publications in Co Fermanagh for many years was launched on 07 November 2014. This 672-page book is the story of the Fermanagh War...
Captain Henry Gallaugher DSO In August 2013 the Inniskillings Museum received the collection of Captain Henry Gallaugher’s effects from the family. Henry Gallaugher was commissioned into the Inniskilling Fusiliers in 1914 and was killed at Messines Ridge on 7th June...
Within the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers family, the career of General Sir Richard Gale KCB, KBE, DSO, MC. seems little known although he was a member of the Regiment from the 19th April 1936 until he was promoted Colonel and Temporary Major General on 17th May 1944. ...
August 2013 saw the museum receive the collection of Captain Henry Gallaugher’s effects from the family. Henry Gallaugher was commissioned into the Inniskilling Fusiliers in 1914. On the first day of the Somme all his fellow officers were killed or wounded early....
In a moving ceremony at St Macartin’s Cathedral, Enniskillen, the famous Standard of the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards was officially ‘laid up’ on Sunday 20 October 2013, ending more than three centuries of service and sacrifice around the world. Standards...
Most of the Museum’s display vehicles are ‘runners’ and each year we try to enter at least one of them in the Vintage Car Parade. This year the organisers planned a G8 theme to commemorate the summit held in Enniskillen earlier in the year. The plan was to have the...
Unique collection of memorabilia belonging to an exceptional soldier. There is a collection of medals, walking stick and photograph in a framed oblong case at the back of the Boer War display in the museum. It would be easily passed unnoticed by most visitors; but it...
When the Sinn Fein Rebellion broke out in Dublin on Easter Monday, the 24th April 1916, the Assistant Adjutant General, Colonel H.V. Cowan, in the absence of both the General Officer Commanding in Chief, Major General L.B.Friend, and his Brigadier General, General...
This article was written by WR McDowell (Cdr RN Rtd) I work with a small team of museum volunteers whose task for the past four years has been to collate all the artefacts possessed by the museum, both those artefacts on display and those not on display (due to lack...
As we try to shake off the Christmas excesses and prepare for 2013, it is perhaps time to reflect on our summer activities of 2012. A busy summer period involved a Field Trip, preparation and considerable research into the names recorded on the Fermanagh War Memorial...
It is with great sadness that we report the death of Bill Vincent, a former officer in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. He died on 18 October 2012 in Monaco. Biography of Arthur William Bourn Vincent The son of an Irish father, Arthur Rose Vincent, a graduate of...
It is with deep sadness that we record the death of Lieutenant Colonel J M V M Cargin LVO (Johnny) in hospital in Cork on Friday 2nd November 2012 after a short illness. Johnny Cargin was commissioned into the 1st Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers on 17th...
Re-enactment groups are societies of enthusiastic individuals who meet to relive military activities in historical times. They research in minute detail the uniforms, equipment and military manoeuvres relevant to particular historical periods. Wearing reproduction...
Captain LAWRENCE EDWARD GRACE OATES was born 17th March 1880, in Putney,London. In 1898 after Ieaving Eton, Oates joined the 3rd West Yorkshire (Militia) Regiment, and two years later joined the army, being posted to the 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons. Oates in uniform -...
From 30 March to 30 June 2012, the Inniskillings Museum, in conjunction with the Fermanagh County Museum and the Tower Museum, Londonderry, will be staging the ‘Connection and Division Exhibition’ which challenges preconceptions and highlights hidden histories for the...