Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Private W. J. Shields, 2nd Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles, who was taken prisoner of war at Neuve Chapelle, during the Battle of La Bassée, on 27 October 1914

1914 Star, with clasp (8568 Pte. W. J. Shields. R. Ir. Rif.); British War and Victory Medals (8568 Pte. W. J. Shields. R. Ir. Rif.) good very fine (3) £200-£240

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Barry Hobbs Collection of Great War Medals.

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William John Shields was born in 1890 in Carrickfergus, County Antrim, Ireland and attested for the Royal Irish Rifles at Newtownards in March 1907. Following the outbreak of the Great War, he was mobilized from the Reserve at Belfast on 5 August 1914 and served with the 2nd Battalion during the Great War from 14 August 1914.

John Lucy was in this Battalion and describes in detail in his book - There’s a Devil in the Drum - the retreat from Mons, including the fighting at Caudry on 26 August, on the Aisne (14-22 September) - ‘this was a holocaust’ - and the overwhelming German attacks during the Battle of La Bassée, particularly at Neuve Chapelle (23-27 October) - the War Diary recording that by 24 October the battalion was ‘practically without officers’ and by the 27th no further trace could be found of “B” and “D” Companies. “A” and “C” Companies, having then been recalled to the line succeeded in driving the enemy back but were forced later on 27 October to withdraw to Neuve Chapelle with only 2 officers and 46 men succeeding in getting back.

The History of the First Seven Battalions, The Royal Irish Rifles in the Great War vol 2 by Cyril Falls, gives the following account of the worst of the fighting on 26 and 27 October:
‘The Battalion still clung on to Neuve Chapelle, but it was now a grievous case. In the last two days it had lost Captains Reynolds and Kennedy and Lieutenant Rea killed, and Lieutenants Lowry and Lavelle wounded. Major Daunt had already been wounded, and the command devolved upon Captain C. S. Dixon, who had not more than four or five officers left with his thinned companies. Two of these, “A” and “C” were moved back to Richebourg St. Vaast for a short rest on the morning of the 26th. This was the blackest day of all. An enemy attack swept into the village from the north-east corner. “B” and “D” Companies were simply swallowed up, Lieutenants Finlay and and Innes-Cross, the only officers with them, and every soul in their ranks, being reported missing. About 6.30pm a counter-attack reoccupied half the village, and the rest of the Battalion, hastily summoned from Richebourg, took its place in the line. South-east of the village their splendid colleagues in the Wiltshire had clung to their trenches even when the enemy was behind them.
On the morning of the 27th the enemy turned the left flank of the Battalion. After terrible fighting from house to house, in which little groups were caught by the oncoming enemy like rocks flooded by a rising tide, Captain Dixon withdrew his handful to the western outskirts in an effort to save his brigade’s flank. The battle had become at this point what the soldier aptly calls a ‘dog fight,’ a wild fury of rush and counter-rush. By evening there was half a battalion of 47th Sikhs hastily moved up, Lincolns, Northumberland Fusiliers, Royal Fusiliers, remnants of the South Lancashire, and French Cyclists sent by General Conneau, clinging to the western edge of Neuve Chapelle, now in flames. And then at last, after ten days’ fighting, the last remnants of the Battalion were moved back to Richebourg St. Vaast. Captain Davis had been killed, Lieutenants Mulcahy-Morgan and Jonsson were wounded and missing. The body that retired to Richebourg consisted of two officers and forty-six men.’

Rifleman Shields was among those reported missing after the fighting at Neuve Chapelle on 27 October 1914. He was later confirmed to have been captured by the enemy and was held prisoner of war in Germany for the remainder of the war. He was repatriated on 4 December 1918 and transferred to the Class Z Reserve on demobilization on 29 March 1919.