WHYTE'S THE ECLECTIC COLLECTOR 13 MAY 2023

171 History THE ECLECTIC COLLECTOR · TIMED ON-LINE AUCTION 28 April - 30 May 2023 316 1939-1946. Emergency Service Medal Merchant Marine issue with three bars awarded posthumously to a casualty. Issued for Richard Grimes of 88 Upper Dorset Street, who perished on the SS Kyleclare on 23 February 1943, accompanied by original letters from the Limerick Steam Ship Company and The Department of Industry & Commerce to members of Grimes’ family, copies of notes on the Kyleclare and Grimes’ record, and a photograph of him in uniform. Condition: Extremely fine. 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. 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, Richard Grimes of Dorset Street, Dublin. Estimate €1500-€2000 (approx £1,320-£1,750) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot 316