WHYTE'S THE ECLECTIC COLLECTOR 5 MAY 2018

History THE ECLECTIC COLLECTOR · 5 MAY 2018 AT 11AM 139 1939-1946 Emergency National Service Medals, 26th Battalion and Local Defence Force. To unknown recipients, both with one bar, the 26th Battalion medal with box of issue. (2) Estimate €150-€200 approx (£130-£170 approx.) Click Here for Large Images & To Bid 139 140 1939-1946 Emergency National Service Medals, Red Cross, Defence Forces and Local Defence Forces. To unknown recipients. (3) Estimate €120-€180 approx (£100-£160 approx.) Click Here for Large Images & To Bid 140 141 1939-1946 Merchant Marine medal, with three bars, posthumously awarded to Philip Hopkins, bo’sun of SS Kyleclare. Irish Emergency Service Medal, issued to the Merchant Marine Service, An tSeirbhís Mhuir- Thracthtála, with clasp & 3 bars on blue and white ribbon. The obverse with female figure holding Irish wolfhound, the reverse a large steamship at sea with a sailing vessel just visible. A rare service medal in the Irish Merchant Marine service recording three periods of service in the Emergency. Only 58 are recorded with three bars. Provenance: By descent to the current owner. Kyleclare was built at Dundee in 1932 for the Limerick Steam Ship Company and up to the outbreak of the war mainly traded from ports in the west of Ireland to Liverpool. On 21 February 1943 she left Lisbon for Dublin. Two days later she was sunk by German submarine U-456 (Kapitanleutnant Max Teichert). He later claimed that he had not seen Kyleclare ’s neutrality markings as she was so low in the water. The U-boat proceeded to the position of the sinking but found nothing except wreckage. All the crew were lost including the recipient of this medal, Philip Hopkins, aged 42, a widower of Pigeon House Road, Dublin who was bo’sun of the vessel. Estimate €1,000-€1,500 approx (£870-£1,310 approx.) Click Here for Large Images & To Bid 141