PRIVATE W. WOOLLEY, 13TH BATTALION ROYAL INNISKILLING FUSILIERS (LATE 9TH BATTALION LANCASHIRE FUSILIERS) . Two: British War and Victory Medals (officially impressed: 33052 PTE. W. WOOLLEY. LAN. FUS.). BWM attractively toned, Extremely Fine and a scarce group to a man confirmed as having seen service with the 13th Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers.
Group accompanied by copied Medal Index card confirming medals and that Woolley was not entitled to either of the Stars, and WW1 medal roll confirming that Woolley initially saw service as 33052 Private with the 9th Battalion Lancashisre Fusiliers and subsequently as 47808 with the 13th Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers.
The 13th (Service) Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers was formed late in the war, during the desperate scramble to put together front line fighting units following the German Spring offensive of 1918. The battalion was formerly the 11th Garrison Guard Battalion. This 11th Garrison Guard Battalion was grouped with the 7th & 8th Garrison Guard Battalions in the early summer of 1918 to form 120th Brigade. The 11th Garrison Guard Battalion was then re-designated 13th Garrison Guard Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. By 15th June 1918 the formation of the three Garrison Battalions in 120th Brigade was completed, and they were transferred to 119th Brigade, 40th Division. On 13th July 1918 the prefix "Garrison Guard" was eliminated from the designations of the three battalions in 119 Brigade, and the battalion became the 13th (Service) Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. The induction of these former Garrison Guard Battalions was part of a wholesale re-organisation of the 40th Division. This re-organisation was completed in mid-July 1918, whereupon the 40th Division moved into the front line, with the objective of holding the West Hazebrouck area in the event of an emergency.
Medals attributable to men who saw service with the 13th Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers are seldom encountered, since the vast majority of men who saw service with the battalion would have had their medals named to the first unit they saw service with in WW1 (as is the case here).
The 9th Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers was formed at Bury on 31/8/1914. After seeing service in Gallipoli and Egypt, the battalion transferred to France in July 1916, arriving at Marseilles on 10/7/1916. The battalion was disbanded in France at Allouagne on 12/2/1918, the members of the battalion then being transferred to other units. It was presumably at this point that Woolley transferred to the 13th Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, which was then serving in France with the 40th Division.
