A Collection of Medals for the Gallipoli Campaign

Three: Private A. Dunford, Royal Irish Fusiliers, who died of wounds at Gallipoli on 16 August 1915, aged 18 years

1914-15 Star (17186. Pte. A. Dunford, R. Ir. Fus.); British War and Victory Medals (17186 Pte. A. Dunford. R. Ir. Fus.) good very fine (3) £140-£180

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals for the Gallipoli Campaign.

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Albert Dunford was born in 1897 and served at Gallipoli with the 6th Battalion, Royal Irish Fusiliers from 7 August 1915 as part of 31st Infantry Brigade, 10th Irish Division. Disembarked at Suvla, the 6th Battalion took part in some of the hardest fighting of the campaign; most of the ‘rest’ areas were still within the range of Ottoman artillery and were harassed around the clock. Tasked to advance towards Hill 50 and Hill 53 (Green Hill and Chocolate Hill) and latterly, along the razor-back ridge of Kiretch Tepe Sirt, the Battalion suffered a 50% casualty rate with 561 men killed, wounded or missing in action within the first three weeks. Struck by a bullet in the abdomen, Dunford was evacuated from the peninsula aboard the hospital ship H.M.A.T. Assaye; he died of his wound a short while later on 16 August 1915. He has no known grave and is commemorated upon the Helles Memorial, Turkey.