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Auction: 323 - The Numismatic Collector's Series Sale
Lot: 782

A 1st (Dublin) Battalion Associated Volunteer Training Corps Officer's Cap Badge
A 'G.R.'s' Officer's Service Dress Cap Badge in bronze, 'G.V.R.' cypher with crown above, with two reverse lugs, good very fine

Attributed to Sir Frederick William Moore, Athletics Volunteer Force, Loyal Dublin Volunteers, and Dublin Veteran Corps, and 1st (Dublin) Battalion Associated Volunteer Training Corps.

The Volunteer Training Corps was a voluntary home defence militia in the United Kingdom during the Great War, known as the 'Gorgeous Wrecks' by the Dublin wits on account of the 'G.R.' on their cap badge and armbands. The only time that Volunteer Training Corps men were engaged in actual combat was on Easter Monday, 24th March 1916, during the Easter Rising in Dublin. Some 120 members of the 1st (Dublin) Battalion, Associated Volunteer Training Corps were returning from field exercises at Ticknock, when they heard news of the uprising. The commanding officer, Major Harris, decided to march back to their headquarters at Beggar's Bush Barracks. They carried rifles but were without ammunition or bayonets. Ambushed in Haddington Road, they were fired on by a party of Irish Volunteers from a railway bridge, 'who poured volleys of rifle shots into the ranks of the defenceless Veterans' (Sinn Fein Rebellion Handbook refers). Part of the V.T.C. force entered the barracks by the front gate; others made their way to the rear and scaled the wall. About 40 men at the rear of the column were pinned down by fire from surrounding houses and four were killed. The V.T.C. men, who had had the honour of being the first unit to shed their blood for their cause, then assisted the small garrison of regular soldiers to hold the barracks for eight days.

Provenance: Mullen's October 1997

Sold for
$90