Orders, Decorations and Medals

Seven: Sergeant Richard Ahern, Royal Dublin Fusiliers

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 5 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Relief of Ladysmith, Transvaal, Tugela Heights (2565 Pte., Rl. Dublin Fus.) last clasp with unofficial rivets; King’s South Africa 1901-02, 2 clasps, South Africa 1901, South Africa 1902 (2565 Pte., Rl. Dublin Fus.); 1914-15 Star (15930 L.Cpl., R. Dub. Fus.); British War and Victory Medals (15930 Sjt., R.D. Fus.); Army L.S. & G.C., E.VII.R. (2565 Pte, Rl. Dublin Fus.); Meritorious Service Medal, G.V.R., 1st issue (6-15930 Sjt., 6/R. Dub. Fus.) contact marks, nearly very fine (7) £1200-1500

M.S.M. London Gazette 26 April 1917: ‘in recognition of valuable services rendered with the Armies in the Field during the present War.’

Richard Ahern was born at Ballyvergen, Cork, and enlisted into the Royal Dublin Fusiliers on 19 April 1887, aged 18 years 6 months. He served in South Africa during the Boer War and afterwards in India, and was discharged at Naas in April 1909. He joined up on the outbreak of war in 1914 and was posted to the 6th Battalion of his old regiment, which became part of the M.E.F. 10th (Irish) Division, and saw service in Gallipoli and Salonika. He was appointed Acting Sergeant in August 1915 and promoted to Sergeant in September 1916. Returning to England in December 1917, he was next posted to the 3rd Battalion and subsequently to the Depot for recruiting duties. He was discharged on 27 August 1919 and died on 22 October 1946.

Two of his sons were killed in the Great War:- Private (Drummer) Rodney Ahern, 1/R. Dublin Fusiliers, in Gallipoli in August 1915; and Private Richard Ahern, 2/Leinster Regiment, in France in November 1917. In an obituary for Rodney Ahern published in the Kildare Observer, 4 September 1915, it states:

‘Mr Richard Ahern, father of the deceased, was a popular member of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, who fought right through the Boer War, and who for some years past was on the staff of the Newbridge Post Office. When the present war started Mr Ahern immediately volunteered for active service and was soon at the front with his old corps, the 1st Dublins. He was very anxious to meet his son, who was in the fighting line, and although both were in Alexandria for some hours at the same time, in their different companies, they did not meet, neither did they while in the fighting line afterwards.’