Orders, Decorations and Medals

An unusual R.N.L.I. Medal awarded to Private Michael Byrne, Royal Irish Regiment, for helping rescue three men who had fallen into the sea at Southampton Water, 1 May 1893

Royal National Lifeboat Institution, V.R., silver (Private Byrne. Voted 8th June 1893) with ‘double-dolphin’ suspension, jeweller’s mark to edge, minor contact marks, good very fine, rare £700-800

Michael Byrne was born in the Parish of St. John, Waterford. A Tailor by occupation and a member of the 5th Battalion Royal Irish Regiment, he attested for full-time service at Waterford on 16 November 1886, aged 18 years. He was posted to the 1st Battalion Royal Irish Regiment at Devonport in February 1887. Whilst in England he was twice admitted to hospital on account of deafness. He deserted on 14 December 1887 but returned on 15 February 1888 and was subsequently sentenced to 28 days imprisonment. In October 1889 he was posted to India to serve with the 2nd Battalion. Attaining the rank of Corporal in December 1891, he was again convicted and reduced to Private in May 1892. In India he was in hospital on several occasions suffering from ague (malaria) and was again troubled by deafness. Due to his debility, on 11 January 1893 a Medical Board recommended his discharge from the Army. He left India aboard the troopship H.M.S. Crocodile on 2 March 1893 and on arrival in England was admitted to the Royal Victorian Hospital, Netley on 28 March 1893.

It was while he was a patient at the Royal Victoria Hospital that on 1 May 1893, he and three other patients saw an accident on Southampton Water. An account of the incident in Lifeboat Gallantry reads:

‘When a boat capsized in a heavy sea in Southampton Water, three men were thrown into the water. Four soldiers, patients in the Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley, Hampshire, invalided home from India, noticed the men’s plight and set out in a skiff. They picked up the men, returned to land in an overloaded condition and risked further injury to their health from wet clothing and exposure to the cold wind.’

On 8 June 1893 the Royal National Lifeboat Institution voted its Silver Medal and the sum of one pound to each of the four men involved in the rescue, these being 2848 Private Frederick Sutcliffe, 21st Hussars; 9895 Corporal John George Holmes, Rifle Brigade and 2691 Private Michael Byrne and 3371 Private James Carroll, both of the Royal Irish Regiment.

Byrne was finally discharged from the Army as medically unfit on 9 May 1893. His only medallic award was the medal he received from the R.N.L.I. With copied service papers and other research.