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Auction: 323 - The Numismatic Collector's Series Sale
Lot: 765

An Interesting Group of Three to Corporal James McIntosh, Royal Dublin Fusiliers, Who Served During the Great War and Was Wounded on the Somme, July 1916 and at Passchendaele, August 1917; After the Great War he Joined the Irish Republican Army, And Was Mortally Wounded Whilst Attempting to Assassinate British Officers at the Royal Marine Hotel, Dun Laoghaire, Dublin, in June 1921
1914-15 Star (15075, L-Cpl. J. Mc Intosh, R. Dub. Fus.); British War and Victory Medals (15075 Cpl. J. McIntosh. R.D. Fus.), nearly very fine (3)

15057 Corporal James McIntosh was born in Co. Laois in 1885, and enlisted in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, 1.10.1914. He served with the Regiment during the Great War on the Western Front, and was wounded early on during the Battle of the Some, being sent home, 6.7.1916. He returned to France in December 1916, and was again seriously wounded during the Battle of Passchendaele, 11.8.1917, and spent a total of 131 days recovering in hospital in London. He was discharged medically unfit from the Army in February 1920.

Enlisting in the Irish Republican Army, he served with the Active Service Unit (A.S.U.) of the Dun Laoghaire I.R.A., and was involved in an assassination attempt on British Military Officers staying at the Royal Marine Hotel Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin. The hotel was a long time billet for Officers staying in Dun Laoghaire, and had been used by General Maxwell during the 1916 Easter Rising. On the night of the 19th June 1921 the I.R.A. entered the hotel and came face-to-face with their targets. A gun battle ensued, in which McIntosh was fatally wounded. He managed to escape the hotel but only managed to make it as far as Marine Road as short distance way. He was taken to the local St. Michael's Hospital, where he died two days later on the 22nd June, 1921. As his funeral procession left St. Michael's Church in Dun Laoghaire, British soldiers stopped the procession and removed an Irish Tricolour from the coffin. A young lady grabbed the flag from the soldier and a minor scuffle broke out, with the Black and Tans who accompanied the soldiers firing over the heads of the mourners, causing panic as people dived for cover. However, the funeral procession managed to continue, and McIntosh was buried in the Republican plot of Dean's Grange Cemetery, Dublin.

Sold for
$1,800