Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Private A. Brickley, Royal Irish Rifles, who was killed in action on the Western Front on 10 March 1915

1914 Star (9140 Pte. A. Brickley. 1/R. Ir: Rif.); British War and Victory Medals (9140 Pte. A. Brickley. R. Ir. Rif.) very fine (3) £140-£180

Alexander Brickley, a mill labourer, was born in Shankill, Belfast, and enlisted in the Royal Irish Rifles at Ballykinlar, County Down on 2 September 1908. Sent to Dover in 1910, his early service was marred by drunkenness and claims that he struck a fellow Private in the face; tried by District Court Martial, the outcome in the recipient’s Army Service Record remains unclear.

Posted to France with the 1st Battalion from 6 November 1914, Brickley was admitted to No. 26 Field Ambulance suffering from tonsillitis in January 1915. Returned to active service, he was killed at Neuve Chapelle on 10 March 1915. He has no known grave and is commemorated on Le Touret Memorial, France.

Sold with copied Army Service Record and private research, including the recipient’s entry in Ireland’s Memorial Records, 1914-1918.