Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A 1920 Constabulary Medal (Ireland) awarded to Constable B. S. Daniels, Royal Irish Constabulary, believed to be for gallantry in operations in East Kerry in May or early June 1920, shortly after Daniels had begun his active service in the field

Constabulary Medal (Ireland), 2nd type, ‘Reward of Merit Royal Irish Constabulary’ (Constable Bertie S. Daniels 70743. 1920) with integral top silver riband bar, light scratches to obverse field, good very fine £2,400-£2,800

Bertie Scoggins Daniels was born in Brockley, London on 19 June 1899, and joined the Royal Marine Artillery on 19 September 1916. He served as a Gunner during the Great War, before joining the Royal Irish Constabulary on 18 March 1920, at the age of 20. After just a few weeks of R.I.C. police training, he was assigned to serve in Kerry from 21 April 1920.

Irish Republicans had long recognised that ‘The RIC were the eyes of the British army’ and since 1916 they had mounted a steadily increasing campaign of intimidation, ostracism and then violence to diminish the R.I.C.’s ability to recruit and retain manpower and to break its morale, especially in rural areas. Recruitment dropped steadily in 1919 and 1920, and resignations and requests for retirement climbed. The smaller R.I.C. posts, usually composed of a handful of men in a rented house with no fortification whatsoever, had become sitting ducks for Republican attacks. On 9 November 1919, orders were issued to abandon as many stations as were needed to bring the remainder up to a minimum of six men (later increased to over 10). However, increasing concentration could not stop the haemorrhaging of effectives, and R.I.C. recruiting remained 20-30% or more below the level needed to replace retirements and resignations. On 27 December 1919, the R.I.C. Inspector-General authorised the recruitment of ex-servicemen on the British mainland. The first men recruited as a result appeared in the R.I.C. General Register six days later. For reasons of expediency and economy, Daniels and the other mainland recruits were initially issued with both black-green R.I.C. uniform items and war-surplus military khaki tunics, trousers and coats. They wore these in varying combinations, the most popular being R.I.C. cap, tunic and belt with khaki trousers and coat. This mix ’n’ match look caused them to be dubbed ‘Black and Tans.’

Daniels’s service record states that he was recommended by the R.I.C.'s chief recruiting officer in Great Britain, R.I.C. District Inspector and Irish Guards Major Cyril Fleming, who worked in the army recruiting office at Great Scotland Yard in London. Daniels met the R.I.C. requirements: his height of five feet ten inches was above the pre-war standard of five feet nine inches, he was unmarried and had an Army rating of ‘Good’ or better Tans like Daniels were permanent members of the R.I.C. (though they are often confused with the ‘Temporary Constables’ or ‘Temporary Cadets’ who formed separate branches of the security forces). They lived and worked alongside their Irish colleagues, although their accents, religion and multi-coloured uniforms set them apart. Their lack of police training meant that they tended to be assigned a greater share of quasi-military tasks such as raids, searches, guard or escort duties.

The R.I.C. Nominal Returns by County for 1920 note that Daniels was stationed at Tralee, a key garrison in East Kerry. Daniels was awarded his Constabulary Medal and a First Class Favourable Record on 13 July 1920, together with other Constables. As P.E. Abbott, the widely acknowledged expert on R.I.C. awards, stated in the O.M.R.S. Journal Miscellany No. 14 of 2001, the fastest time for a recommendation for award of the Constabulary Medal to pass through the approval system was one month. Therefore, Daniels must have been in action at some time in the window 18 March (when he joined the R.I.C.) to 13 June 1920. There were only a few major I.R.A. operations in East Kerry during that window. An attack on Scartaglin Barracks was made on Thursday 31 March and the garrison (normally six men) were all awarded Constabulary Medals. However, this seems too early for Daniels to be involved, unless he had literally just arrived from the Dublin depot in advance of his ‘official’ allocation to Kerry on 21 April (other cases are known of Tans being sent out post-haste to hard pressed areas before their official allocation date). In early May an I.R.A. attack on Brosna Barracks was called off when six of the I.R.A. gunmen were intercepted at Feale Bridge, captured, court-martialled and given ‘heavy terms of imprisonment’. It is possible that Constabulary Medals were awarded for this R.I.C. ‘win’. A lull in the fighting followed, until the big attack on Bosna barracks on 19 June (for which the recommendations for Constabulary Medal awards have survived).

After his remarkable initial ‘baptism of fire’, Daniels served on in Kerry until the R.I.C. was disbanded in 1922.