Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Lieutenant T. C. Shillington, Royal Irish Rifles, wounded in action and taken prisoner - later repatriated as part of a prisoner exchange

1914-15 Star (Lieut., R. Ir. Rif.); British War and Victory Medals (Lieut.); with three miniature dress medals; together with a City and Guilds of London Institute Technological Examination Medal (Thomas Courtenay Shillington, Linen Weaving 1st Prize, 1897) 51mm., silver, good very fine and better (7) £300-400

Thomas Coutenay Shillington was born on 5 March 1876 at Glenmachan Tower, Ballymachan, Belfast, to John Johnson and Annie Shillington. He was married to Bertha and was employed as a Linen merchant. He did 18 months training with the Ulster Volunteer Force before signing up for a commission in October 1914. As a Lieutenant in the 8th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles, he entered France in October 1915. Serving with ‘B’ Company on the night of 19 November 1915, close to the village of Beaumont Hamel, he was instructed at midnight to take a patrol forward to the German lines to investigate a sunken road. Instructing his patrol to wait just behind the road, he went forward to investigate. As he was peering over the bank at the sunken road he was hit by a bullet in the chest which pierced his left lung and broke a rib. In an unconscious state, he was captured by the Germans and taken back to their lines. Shillington was treated at a German hospital and notices were left by the Germans in no-man’s land to say that he had been captured and that his wife and children should be notified. As a prisoner, Shilligton’s injuries did not properly heal and in August 1916 he was one of a number of British men sent to Switzerland to be ‘swapped’ for wounded Germans. He was interned in Switzerland on 12 August 1916 and repatriated to the U.K. on 11 September 1917. He ended the war serving with the 3rd Battalion Royal Irish Rifles. Latterly living at Cairnburn Road, Belfast, he died on 28 April 1963.

With copied m.i.c. and service details. For his sister’s medals see lot 12.