THE MILITARY MEDAL AND VICTORY MEDAL PAIR TO PRIVATE W. PARKER, 13TH BATTALION ROYAL INNISKILLING FUSILIERS (FORMERLY 2/6TH BATTALION DUKE OF WELLINGTON'S WEST RIDING REGIMENT). Two: Military Medal, George V (officially named, impressed in plain block capitals, but with the wrong battalion number, "15" instead of "13": 47947 PTE. W. PARKER. 15/R. INNIS: FUS) Victory Medal (officially named, impressed in plain block capitals: 205366 PTE. W. PARKER. W. RID. R.). Generally Extremely Fine, the Military Medal attractively toned, and accompanied by a double sided gilt locket, to one side a shoulder length portrait of recipient in uniform, cap bearing the badge of the West Riding Regiment, reverse with shoulder length portrait of a young woman, presumably recipient's wife or girlfriend (?). Glass lunette lacking from female portrait, otherwise locket in good condition. A rare Military Medal to the 13th Inniskillings, the battalion not being formed till July 1918, and seeing only limited action during the closing months of the war.
The battalion number "15" impressed on Parker's Military Medal is clearly a mistake, there being no 15th Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, the 13th Battalion Inniskilling Fusiliers being the last battalion of the regiment to be formed during WW1. Parker's WW1 medal roll confirms service initially with the 2/6th Battalion Duke of Wellingtons (West Riding) Regiment and subsequently saw service with the 13th Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, the battalion that he was serving with at the time he was awarded the Military Medal.
Group accompanied by photocopied Medal Index Card, WW1 Victory Medal roll, Military Medal Index Card, photocopied extract from London Gazette re award of Military Medal, extract from Howard Williamson's "The Annotations Found on the Reverses of the Military Medal Index Cards 1916 to 1920" and extract from the War Diary of the 13th Battalion Inniskilling Fusiliers for the period August-September 1918, the period during which Parker was awarded the Military Medal.
Group also accompanied by an old scrap of paper inscribed in pencil "No. 47947 W. Parker, 13th Batt. Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. In re-formed 40th Division in 1918 at Etaples (the Division that the 13th were serving in when Parker won his Military Medal).
Parker's Military Medal index card incorrectly records him as serving with the 15th Battalion Inniskilling Fusiliers when he was awarded his Military Medal, and as a result, this is the battalion that he is recorded as serving with in the London Gazette announcement of his Military Medal. Howard Williamson also mistakenly records Parker as serving with the 15th Battalion Inniskilling Fusiliers, based on the error on Parker's Military Medal index card and London Gazette entry. There never was a 15th Battalion Inniskilling Fusliers, the 13th Inniskilling Fusiliers being the last battalion raised by that regiment during WW1. The medal roll for Parker's Victory Medal confirms that he was serving with the13th Battalion when he was awarded the Military Medal. The incorrect battalion on his Military Medal is clearly a result of his battalion being recorded incorrectly on his Military Medal index card, and as a result subsequently both in the London Gazette and by Howard Williamson.
Howard Williamson confirms Parker's Military Medal was announced in the London Gazette of 11/2/1919 and was awarded for France.
Medal Index Card confirms William Parker initially saw service as 205366 Private, West Riding Regiment, and finally as 47947 Private, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (also entitled British War Medal but not entitled to either of the Stars).
The 2/6th Battalion Duke of Wellingtons (West Riding) Regiment was formed at Skipton, Yorkshire, in September 1914. It went to France in January 1917 and was disbanded in France on 31/8/1918. Parker would presumably have been transferred to the 13th Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers during the summer of 1918, when the 2/6th West Riding Regiment was being broken up.
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 Parkers unit 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.
Confirmed medals or groups of medals attributable to 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 (as is the case here with Parker's Victory Medal) named to their parent unit, making them difficult to identify as medals awarded to a man who saw service with the 13th Inniskillings. In the majority of cases, the only medals named to the 13th Inniskillings would be, like Parker's Military Medal, gallantry awards.
Private Parker's Military Medal was announced in the London Gazette of 11/2/1919 (home town given as Bradford). Howard Williamson, in his "Great War Medal Collectors Companion", notes that this edition of the London Gazette lists recipients of the Military Medal for the Battle of Amiens, 8th August - 3rd September 1918.
The 13th Inniskilling Fusiliers only took part in one significant action during WW1, at Landeck, on 27/8/1918. The following description of that action is taken from the Regimental History.
This battalion won its spurs in an action near Landeck. Advancing on Aug. 27 at 10 a.m. against a section of the enemy line, the 13th Inniskillings were held up by heavy machine-gun fire, but by resolute and clever outflanking movements evicted the enemy. All four Company officers were casualties in this action, but the junior officers, particularly Lt. Smiles and Lt. Cooper, showed the best spirit of leadership. Lt. Cooper was hit twice but still carried on. The battalion came out of the action with three officers killed and nine wounded, 27 other ranks killed, 147 wounded, and 3 missing. But it had kept up the Inniskilling tradition.
Although the regimental history does record the 13th Inniskillings as being subsequently involved in minor actions during September 1918, the passage of the Lys, 2nd - 3rd October 1918, and the crossing of the Scheldt, 9th November 1918, Parkers Millitary Medal was presumably awarded for the action near Landeck, that action taking place in August 1918, and falling within the date range for Military Medals announced in the London Gazette of 11/2/1919.
Further confirmation that Parker's Military Medal was for the action at Landeck on 27th August is provided by the Schedule Number 205551 on his Military Medal Award Card, which indicates an award for Amiens during the period 8th August - 3rd September 1918, and not for the period covering the later actions that the 13th Inniskillings took part in during the closing months of the war.
Apart from Parker, only one other announcement of the award of the Military Medal to a man from the 13th Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers traced in the London Gazette, the Military Medal awarded to 47273 Lance Corporal S. Staley, 13th Inniskillings, announced in the London Gazette of 12/1/1920 (page 531).
