{"product_id":"the-royal-irish-rifles-sweetheart-solid-silver-dated-1912-by-phillips","title":"The Royal Irish Rifles, sweetheart. Solid silver dated 1912 by Phillips.","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eRare and beautifully made and marked sweetheart to The Royal Irish Rifles. Obviously pre 1902 due to the K\/C. Hallmark confirmation: Birmingham Assay Office used a lowercase “n” in a shield for the year 1912 ,this piece was assayed in Birmingham in 1912. Together with the anchor town mark and the lion passant for sterling, that’s a proper full hallmark, not just a “sterling” stamp, so this was a fully assayed, legally hallmarked piece rather than a lower-cost unmarked sweetheart brooch.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eretailer:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“F.P” and Birmingham hallmarks point to the piece being registered with the Assay Office under a sponsor’s mark of “F.P”, and the reverse is also stamped “PHILLIPS, ALDERSHOT” outright, so these two almost certainly refer to the same firm: F. Phillips of Aldershot.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHistory of the Royal Irish Rifles, pre-1912 and just after:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Apple-tab-span\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e•\u003cspan class=\"Apple-tab-span\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eFormed on 1 July 1881 under the Childers Reforms, by merging the 83rd (County of Dublin) Regiment of Foot and the 86th (Royal County Down) Regiment of Foot into the 1st and 2nd Battalions respectively. Neither predecessor had been a rifle regiment, but the new unit was given rifle-regiment status regardless, which is why the badge carries no separate “colours” in the traditional infantry sense.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Apple-tab-span\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e•\u003cspan class=\"Apple-tab-span\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e1st Battalion moved from South Africa (Transvaal War) to Guernsey in 1882, then through Mullingar, Fermoy, Newry, and Aldershot (1895) before serving in Natal, then India from 1899 (Dehra Dun, Fyzabad, Meerut) through to Burma in 1909 and Kempthee in 1911, moving on to Aden by 1913.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Apple-tab-span\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e•\u003cspan class=\"Apple-tab-span\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e2nd Battalion went from Bermuda to Nova Scotia, Gibraltar, Egypt, and the Sudan campaigns of the late 1880s, then Malta, Poona, and South Africa for the Boer War (1899-1902), returning to Dublin in 1903 and Aldershot in 1906, then Dover (1910) and Tidworth (1912).\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Apple-tab-span\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e•\u003cspan class=\"Apple-tab-span\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eBoth battalions deployed to France and Flanders in 1914 at the outbreak of the First World War, alongside a wartime expansion into numerous “Service” battalions.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Apple-tab-span\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e•\u003cspan class=\"Apple-tab-span\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eThe motto “Quis Separabit” (“Who shall separate us”) and the Irish harp badge you have on this piece stayed constant through this whole period.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Apple-tab-span\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e•\u003cspan class=\"Apple-tab-span\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eJust outside your “few years after 1912” window but worth knowing: the regiment lost the “Irish” name on 1 January 1921, becoming the Royal Ulster Rifles, when Louth (one of its recruiting counties) went to the Irish Free State but Antrim and Down remained in Northern Ireland. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gradia Militaria","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54024267661640,"sku":"10131","price":65.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0924\/1103\/5976\/files\/IMG-2275.heic?v=1788870560","url":"https:\/\/www.gradiamilitaria.com\/products\/the-royal-irish-rifles-sweetheart-solid-silver-dated-1912-by-phillips","provider":"Gradia Militaria","version":"1.0","type":"link"}