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Pictures courtesy of DNW

CMG breast badge converted for neck wear, silver-gilt and enamels, minor chips to both centres;
QSA (2) Cape Colony, Orange Free State (Lt: Col: E. Allen, R. Ir. Rif:);
KSA (2) (Lt. Col. E. Allen, Rl. Irish Rif.);
1914-15 Star (Lt: Col: E. Allen. R. Ir: Rif:);
BWM and VM with MID oak leaves (Lt. Col. E. Allen.)

CMG LG 14 January 1916. MID LG 1 January 1916.

Edward Allen was born on 6 September 1859, at Stone Hall, Glandore, county Cork, second son of Christopher Allen, JP He was educated at Eastman’s Naval Academy, Southsea, Hampshire, with a view to entering the Navy, and afterwards at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He joined the 86th Regiment, afterwards the 2nd Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles, in August 1879.

He saw active service throughout the Boer war, 1899-1902; present at the battle of Stormberg, relief of Wepener, and took part in operations in the Orange River Colony, and Cape Colony. He was twice mentioned in despatches and made Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel (Queen’s medal and (2) King’s medal and 2 clasps). Lieutenant-Colonel Allen retired in September 1902.

Recalled in 1914, Lieutenant-Colonel Allen served with the Royal Irish Rifles in France from 26 February 1915.

Picture courtesy of Spink

QSA (4) Cape Colony, Orange Free State, South Africa 1901, South Africa 1902 (3059 Pte W. Nolan. Rl:Irish Rif:) post and suspension severely buckled, edge bruising, good fine

William Nolan was born at Lisburn, Antrim, Ireland in 1878. Attesting with the Militia on 30 October 1899 he was embodied on 10 May 1900 with the Royal Irish Rifles for service in South Africa, disembarking on 5 April 1901. Returning to Britain on 23 July 1902 he was disembodied again 24 July.

Clasps verified.

Picture courtesy of Noonan's

CB (Military) Companion’s breast badge, 18 carat gold and enamels, hallmarked London 1882, complete with swivel-ring suspension and gold ribbon buckle;
Afghanistan (1) Kandahar (Lt. W. Adye. Trans. Dep.);
QSA (1) Natal (Major W. Adye. R. Irish Rifles);
Coronation 1902, silver

Dix Noonan Webb, December 2005, when sold with a silver-gilt CB badge (£3200).

Walter Adye was born in November 1858, the son of Major-General Goodson Adye of Milverton, Warwick, and was educated at Leamington College and Sandhurst. Commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 83rd Regiment (The Royal Irish Rifles) in January 1878, he was advanced to Lieutenant at the end of the same year, and quickly witnessed active service in the Second Afghan War.

Adye was, in fact, detached for special duties, and ‘served throughout the second campaign, firstly as Transport Officer on the Kandahar line, having charge, for six months, of the stations of Dozan and Darwaza in the Boland Pass, and afterwards as Brigade Transport Officer, 1st Division, Kandahar F.F., at Kandahar, where he performed garrison duty throughout the siege. During the retirement of troops from the sortie to Deh Khwaja, he distinguished himself by carrying, under a heavy fire, two of the wounded to places of safety. He was present in the reconnaissance of 31st August, and the battle of Kandahar. He proceeded to India in November 1880, to rejoin his regiment prior to embarkation for Natal. He was recommended by HE the Commander-in-Chief, and by General Primrose, for the Victoria Cross’ (Shadbolt refers): Adye actually descended by a rope ladder from the Kabul Gate when sallying out to rescue the second man.

Having witnessed further active service - back with his regiment - in the First Boer War 1881, Adye was advanced to Captain in November 1884 and served as Adjutant of the Auxiliary Forces 1885-90. Further promotion followed in March 1893, with his appointment as Major, and by the eve of the Second Boer War he was serving as DAAG to the Army.

He subsequently joined Sir George White’s staff out in Natal at the commencement of hostilities, and quickly made his mark with his senior, being described by him as a ‘capital officer’ who knew ‘every inch of the ground’ - the latter accolade presumably on the back of his earlier experiences in the First Boer War of 1881. Be that as it may, and having witnessed the costly affair at Lombard’s Kop, Adye was instrumental in persuading White to let him take a column to Nicholson’s Nek to protect the west flank of the infantry who were assigned the storming of Pepworth, and to block off the enemy’s line of retreat. In the event, the column was commanded by Adye’s regimental CO, Lieutenant-Colonel Carleton, which from a career point of view was probably as well, for the whole met with disaster:

‘... From earliest daybreak Boer scouts were reconnoitring, and about 8 o’clock mounted Boers could be seen galloping in small groups to the cover at the reverse of the hill on the west. Later, two strong parties of mounted men took position on the far side of the two hills commanding the kopje from the west. About 9 o’clock these two parties had crowned the hills and opened a heavy fire at short ranges right down upon the plateau. Our men made a plucky attempt to return this fire, but it was impossible; they were under a cross-fire from two directions, flank and rear. The two companies of Gloucesters holding the self-contained ridge were driven from their shelter, and as they crossed the open on the lower plateau were terribly mauled, the men falling in groups.

The Boers on the west had not yet declared themselves, but about 200 marksmen climbed to the position which the two companies of Gloucesters had just vacated. These men absolutely raked the plateau, and it was then that the men were ordered to take cover on the steep reverse of the kopje. As soon as the enemy realised this move, the men on the western hill teemed on to the summit and opened upon our men as they lay on the slope. They were absolutely hemmed in, and what had commenced as a skirmish seemed about to become a butchery. The grim order was passed round - “Faugh-a-Ballaghs, fix your bayonets and die like men!” There was the clatter of steel, the moment of suspense, and then the “Cease Fire” sounded. Again and again it sounded, but the Irish Fusiliers were loth to accept the call, and continued firing for many minutes. Then it was unconditional surrender and the men laid down their arms...’ (The Transvaal War refers).

Adye was one of 954 officers and men to be taken Prisoner of War that day, a bitter blow to Sir George White, and a day that one historian has described as ‘the most humiliating in British military history since Majuba’: it is said that the officers of the Royal Irish Rifles were ‘so exasperated at the exhibition of the white flag that they set to work and smashed their swords rather than give them up’.

Adye was Mentioned in Despatches (London Gazette 8 February 1901 refers) and, on being released, served as DAAG at Army H.Q. from July 1900 until February 1904. He was advanced to Lieutenant-Colonel in the latter year, when he was appointed a General Staff Officer, and thence to substantive Colonel in October 1907. Appointed CB in 1909, he served briefly as Deputy Assistant Inspector of Remounts, Eastern Command, from 1914 until his death in September 1915.

The group to Major Adye sold for a hammer price of GBP 3,600. Totals: GBP 4,637. R 106,700. AUD 8,660. NZD 9,340. CAD 7,690. USD 5,680. EUR 5,220

Picture courtesy of Morton and Eden

QSA (2) Cape Colony, Orange Free State (1727 Sejt W. Rowe, R. Irish Rifles);
KSA (2) (1727 Serjt: W. Rowe, Rl. Irish Rifles.), official correction to initial,

William Rowe, of Leigh, Lancashire, was born c 1862 and enlisted for service with the 1st Battalion Royal Irish Rifles in 1881.

Picture courtesy of Noonan's

QSA (3) Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal (3031 Pte. J. McAllister, R. Irish Rifles);
[ KSA (2) ]

John McAllister, from Newry, Co. Armagh, attested at Belfast into the Royal Irish Rifles, aged 18 years and 6 months, on 16 February 1892. He served in Malta and the East Indies before transferring to the Army Reserve in March 1899. Recalled for service during the Boer War, he served in South Africa from 14 November 1899 and was taken prisoner the following month, on 10 December 1899, at the Battle of Stomberg.

Arthur Conan Doyle, in ‘The Great Boer War’, wrote: ‘The force with which General Gatacre advanced consisted of the 2nd Northumberland Fusiliers, 960 strong, with one Maxim; the 2nd Irish Rifles, 840 strong, with one Maxim, and 250 Mounted Infantry. There were two batteries of Field Artillery, the 74th and 77th. The total force was well under 3,000 men.’

After the failed assault, Conan Doyle concludes: ‘It is a sad subject to discuss, but it is the one instance in a campaign containing many reverses which amounts to demoralisation among the troops engaged. The Guards marching with the steadiness of Hyde Park off the field of Magersfontein, or the men of Nicholson's Nek chafing because they were not led in a last hopeless charge, are, even in defeat, object lessons of military virtue. But here fatigue and sleeplessness had taken all fire and spirit out of the men. They dropped asleep by the roadside and had to be prodded up by their exhausted officers. Many were taken prisoners in their slumber by the enemy who gleaned behind them. Units broke into small straggling bodies, and it was a sorry and bedraggled force which about ten o'clock came wandering into Molteno. The place of honour in the rear was kept throughout by the Irish Rifles, who preserved some military formation to the end. Our losses in killed and wounded were not severe - Military honour would have been less sore had they been more so. Twenty-six killed, sixty-eight wounded - that is all. But between the men on the hillside and the somnambulists of the column, six hundred, about equally divided between the Irish Rifles and the Northumberland Fusiliers, had been left as prisoners. Two guns, too, had been lost in the hurried retreat.’

‘Our Regiments in South Africa 1899-1902’, by John Stirling, further notes 'No one could blame the Rifles; had they shirked the attack their losses would have been very much less serious. As it turned out, these were approximately 12 men killed, 8 officers, including Colonel Eager, who afterwards died, and 45 men wounded, and 3 officers and over 200 men taken prisoners. It is said that Colonel Eager reached a higher point than any one else in the assault and there was shot down. The evidence given before various courts of inquiry, an abstract of which is printed in the proceedings of the War Commission, shows that the companies who had been foremost in the assault were partially stopped in their progress by the fire of the British artillery, and that these companies were not properly notified of the general's decision to retire.’

McAllister’s release from prison at Waterval was reported in The Times on 10 July 1900, after which he rejoined his regiment. Returning Home on 11 September 1902, he was discharged on 15 February 1904.