Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers

The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers was an Irish infantry regiment of the British Army formed in 1881 by the amalgamation of the 27th (Inniskilling) Regiment of Foot and the 108th Regiment of Foot. It saw service in the South African War, the First World War and the Second World War, before being amalgamated into the Royal Irish Rangers in 1968.

1881 – 1914
On 1 July 1881 the 27th and 108th were redesignated as the 1st and 2nd Battalions, The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers respectively. In 1903 the Regiment was granted a grey hackle for their fusilier raccoon skin hats to commeorate the original grey uniforms of the Inniskilling Regiment.

The regimental district comprised the City of Londonderry and the counties of Donegal, Londonderry, Tyrone and Fermanagh in Ireland, with its garrison depot located at Omagh. The local militia regiments also became part of the new regiment, becoming the 3rd to 5th (Militia) Battalions. Militarily, the whole of Ireland was administered as a separate command within the United Kingdom with Command Headquarters at Parkgate (Phoenix Park) Dublin, directly under the War Office in London.

Under the Childers system, one regular battalion of each regiment was to be at a "home" station, while the other was abroad. Every few years, there was to be an exchange of battalions. In the period from the regiment's formation to the outbreak of the Second Boer War the two regular battalions were stationed as follows:

Second Boer War
In October 1899 war broke out between the United Kingdom and the Boer Republics. The 1st Battalion landed at Durban, where they became part of the 5th (Irish) Brigade. The battalion was involved in a series of military reverses at the hands of the Boers that became known as the "Black Week", culminating in defeat at the Battle of Colenso. The unit subsequently took part in the Tugela Campaign before helping relieve Ladysmith in early 1900. The regiment lent its name to "Inniskilling Hill", which was taken by the 5th brigade on 24/25 February 1900.

The 2nd Battalion only arrived in South Africa from India in the late stages of the war and saw little action.

Following the war in South Africa, the system of rotating battalions between home and foreign stations resumed as follows:

First World War
In 1914 the Great War broke out and the 2nd Battalion was first to see action in the Battle of Le Cateau. The 1st Battalion participated in the Landing at Cape Helles on the Gallipoli peninsula in April 1915 with the 29th Division. There were also nine New Army battalions raised seeing service with the 36th (Ulster) Division and the 16th (Irish) Division on the Western Front and at Gallipoli, the Macedonian Campaign and Palestine.

1916 Easter Rising
The 12th battalion fought against Irish rebels who were fighting to end British rule in Ireland and to establish the Irish Republic during the Easter Rising of 1916 in Dublin. Two of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers were killed and seven more wounded.

Inter War
After the war, the Childers system was resumed, with the 1st Battalion moving to India for foreign service, and the 2nd Battalion based on Salisbury Plain for home service. With the independence of the Irish Free State in 1922 all the Irish line infantry regiments of the British army regiments were to be disbanded. However, this decision was later amended to exclude four battalions and after a successful campaign by the Royal Irish Fusiliers (Princess Victoria's) it was agreed that the disbandment would not be of the most junior regiment but of the two most junior battalions. These were the 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers, the old 89th Foot, and the 2nd Battalion of the Inniskillings, the old 108th Foot. These were placed in 'suspended animation' and the surviving battalions formed The Corps of Royal Inniskilling and Royal Irish Fusiliers. From 1924 this 'corps' shared the Inniskillings' Depot, St Lucia Barracks, in Omagh.

The Inniskillings moved from India to Iraq in 1922, returning to Shorncliffe, England in 1925. They were stationed in Northern Ireland from 1927 to 1933, before moving to Aldershot. They resumed foreign service in 1934, moving to Shanghai and then Singapore two years later.

In 1937 there was an expansion of the army, and the 2nd Battalion was re-raised at Omagh, moving to Catterick in the following year. The 2nd Battalion of the Royal Irish Fusiliers was also reformed, and the arrangement of 1922 ended. The 1st Inniskillings moved to Wellington, Madras in 1938. The two battalions were in these locations when the Second World War broke out in 1939.

Second World War
In addition to the 1st and 2nd battalions, the regiment raised three battalions (5th, 6th and 70th) to fight in the war.

The 2nd Battalion, as part of the BEF, was among those that were evacuated from Dunkirk after desperate fighting as the rearguard to the retreating BEF. In 1942 the 1st Battalion was flown to Burma to help stem the Japanese advance and in 1943 took part in the operations in the Arakan peninsula. After re-fitting, the 2nd Battalion, as part of Fifth Division, left England in 1942 for the East Indies. Their journey was to take them to Madagascar, where they fought the Vichy French in a brief campaign to ensure that the Japanese did not occupy the island to interdict Allied shipping, India, Persia and Syria before they deployed for Operation HUSKY, the invasion of Sicily followed by that of Italy.

During the Italian Campaign, the 6th Battalion would serve in the same theatre as the 2nd but with 38th (Irish) Infantry Brigade. The 6th Battalion fought in the Tunisian Campaign in North Africa and the 2nd Battalion took part in the landings on Sicily and then Italy. The 6th Battalion also fought in Sicily and Italy, most notably at Centuripe in Sicily where its unexpected assault on the hilltop town took the Germans by surprise. In Italy the battalion fought at Cassino and in the pursuit north of Rome but was disbanded after the battles at Lake Trasimene in June 1944; its place in the Irish Brigade was taken by the 2nd Battalion which absorbed many of the personnel of 6th Inniskillings.

Post War
After the war, the 1st Battalion returned to India from Burma and after a stay in Hong Kong was engaged for many months hunting insurgents in the jungles of Malaya. In 1948 both regular battalions were amalgamated as the 1st Battalion, the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. In 1949, after a brief spell at home, the battalion went to the West Indies, returning to the United Kingdom in April 1951. In 1952 it was presented with the Freedom of Enniskillen, the town of its founding. Later that year it went abroad to the Suez Canal Zone and afterwards to Kenya, where it helped to suppress the Mau Mau uprising; while in the latter country, it received the Freedom of Nairobi in perpetuity, the first and so far only time that a British regiment has been so honoured by a colonial city. For a short time, from April 1952, the 2nd Battalion was reformed and saw service in Egypt and Cyprus, where it was in action against EOKA insurgents. The battalion had also deployed 400 men to help the civil authorities during severe flooding in the Thames estuary. In 1956 the battalion was again disbanded.

The 1st Battalion returned to England in 1955 and after two years at the School of Infantry went to Germany, being stationed in Berlin and Wuppertal. In 1960 half of the battalion was back in Kenya with a detachment in Bahrein. In 1961 the battalion flew into Kuwait when the sheikdom was threatened by Iraq. The battalion returned to England in 1962, stationed at Gravesend.

In April 1968 the 1st Battalion had its final operational deployment when Tactical Headquarters and B Company were ordered at short notice to Bermuda with trouble brewing on the island due to a tense political situation. Following a peaceful election the detachment returned to Worcester in preparation, with the remainder of the battalion, for the final regimental chapter; at midnight on 30 June 1968, following a nostalgic ceremony, the regimental flag was lowered for the last time.

Amalgamation
On 1 July 1968, the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, the Royal Ulster Rifles and the Royal Irish Fusiliers became the Royal Irish Rangers (27th Inniskilling, 83rd and 87th). The date of 1 July was chosen as it marked the fifty-second anniversary of the first day of the Battle of the Somme, in which battalions of all three merging regiments fought. The Royal Irish Rangers amalgamated with the Ulster Defence Regiment and on 1 July 1992 became the Royal Irish Regiment.

Battle honours
Borne on the Regimental Colours (including the combined honours of the 27th and 108th Foot)


 * Martinique 1762 ¶
 * Havannah ¶
 * St Lucia 1778–96 ¶
 * Maida †
 * Busaco †
 * Badajoz †


 * Salamanca †
 * Vittoria †
 * Pyrenees †
 * Nivelle †
 * Orthes †
 * Toulouse


 * Peninsula †
 * Waterloo †
 * South Africa 1835, 1846–47♦
 * Central India ‡
 * Relief of Ladysmith
 * South Africa 1899–1902

† Awarded to 27th Foot ‡ Awarded to 108th Foot ¶ Awarded in 1909 for services of the 27th Foot ♦ Awarded in 1882 for services of 27th Foot

Borne on the Queen's Colour (10 selected honours each for the First and Second World Wars)


 * Le Cateau
 * Somme 1916, '18
 * Ypres, 1917, '18
 * St Quentin
 * Hindenburg Line
 * France & Flanders
 * Macedonia, 1915–17
 * Landing at Helles
 * Gallipoli, 1915–16
 * Palestine, 1917–18


 * North-West Europe 1940
 * Djebel Tanngoucha
 * North Africa, 1942–43
 * Centuripe
 * Sicily, 1943
 * Garigliano Crossing
 * Cassino II
 * Italy, 1943–45
 * Yenangyaung, 1942
 * Burma, 1942–43

The Regimental Chapel
The Regimental chapel is in St Macartin's Cathedral, Enniskillen



Great War Memorials

 * Ulster Tower Memorial Thiepval, France.
 * Irish National War Memorial Gardens Dublin.
 * Island of Ireland Peace Park Messines, Belgium.
 * Menin Gate Memorial Ypres, Belgium.

Victoria Cross
Recipients of the Victoria Cross:
 * Captain Gerald Robert O'Sullivan, 1st Battalion. 1/2 July 1915, Gallipoli.
 * Sergeant James Somers, 1st Battalion. 1/2 July 1915, Gallipoli.
 * Captain Eric Norman Frankland Bell, (attached to 4th Trench Mortar Battery) 1 July 1916, Thiepval.
 * Lieutenant Colonel John Sherwood-Kelly (Norfolk Regiment) CMG DSO, commanding 1st Battalion, 20 November 1917, Marcoing, Cambrai.
 * Second Lieutenant James Samuel Emerson, 9th Battalion, 6 December 1917, Hindenburg Line, Cambrai.
 * Private James Duffy, 6th Battalion, 27 December 1917, Kereina Peak, Palestine.
 * Lance Corporal Ernest Seaman, 2nd Battalion, 29 September 1918, Terhand, Belgium.
 * Private Norman Harvey, 1st Battalion, 25 October 1918,Ingoyghem,Belgium.