Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Crimea D.C.M. group of five awarded to Private R. O’Rourke, 88th Foot, who was slightly wounded during the second Assault on the Grand Redan, 8 September 1855, when the Regiment’s D.C.M. winners wore their medals into action

Distinguished Conduct Medal, V.R. (... Patk. O’ Rourke. 88th. Regt.); Crimea 1854-56, 3 clasps, Alma, Inkermann, Sebastopol (2898 Pte. Pat. O’Rourke. 88th. Regt.) Regimentally impressed naming; Indian Mutiny 1857-59, 1 clasp, Central India (Patt O’Rourke, 88th. Regt.); Army L.S. & G.C., V.R., 3rd issue, small letter reverse (2898 Patrick O’Rourke 88th. Foot); Turkish Crimea 1855, British issue (..98 Pte. P. O’Rourke, 88th. Regt.) contemporarily engraved naming, with scroll suspension, heavy contact marks throughout, nearly very fine (5) £2000-2600

D.C.M. recommendation dated 21 January 1855.

Patrick O’Rourke was born in Tralee, Co. Kerry, in 1834 and attested there for the 88th (Connaught Rangers) Regiment of Foot on 10 November 1852. He served with the Regiment in the Crimea, and having already distinguished himself earlier in the war receiving the Distinguished Conduct Medal and a gratuity of £5, is recorded in The Crimean Campaign With The Connaught Rangers as being wounded in the face by a musket ball on the 8 September 1855, during the second Assault on the Grand Redan:

‘My friend M. was, like the rest of us, carried into the ditch of the Redan, and was in the act of scrambling out of it with no little effort, when a sturdy officer of one of the regiments put his foot most inopportunely upon M.’s shoulder, and sent him back into the ditch. When he shortly afterwards met M. in the trenches, he made the “amende” by offering him a “refresher” out of his flask.

Immediately upon our reaching the trenches, after quitting the Redan, we received instructions to keep up a continuous fire upon the salient, and Russian accounts stated this incessant fire caused many casualties among them. About five p.m. we were relieved by the 79th Highlanders, and marched back to camp, under the command of Major E. H. Maxwell, our ranks considerably thinned, having left behind us so many of our brave fellows, besides those who had been carried off wounded. It was a remarkable fact that almost, if not every, man of ours, in possession of a Distinguished Conduct Medal, was either killed or wounded... Sergeant Major Cooney, wounded, lost a leg; Corporal Hourigan, wounded; Sergeant Price, killed; Sergeant Wrenn, killed; Corporal Connelly, wounded, lost an arm; Private Mills, O’Rourke, and Connell, wounded; altogether, two killed and seven wounded. Fifteen men had been awarded the D.C. Medal in April 1855; nine were present at the last attack on the Redan; and, of the remaining six, two had been killed in the trenches; one died of sickness, and three had been invalided.’

The 9 D.C.M. winners from the Regiment (including O’Rourke) present in the action are recorded as having worn their awards for the Attack on the Redan.

O’Rourke subsequently served with the Regiment in India for thirteen and a half years, including seeing service during the great Sepoy Mutiny, and was awarded his Long Service and Good Conduct Medal, together with a further gratuity of £5, before taking his discharge on 3 March 1874, after 21 years and 114 days’ service.