Company Quartermaster Serjeant Robert Gamble - 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Rifles 1916
??? C.QMR SERJT
R.GAMBLE
Royal Irish Rifles
26th April 1916 Age 28
Not on the Bungay War Memorial
GAMBLE, ROBERT
Rank:……………………………..Company Quartermaster Serjeant
Service No:…………………….8833
Date of Death:……………….26/04/1916
Age:………………………………..28
Regiment:………………………Royal Irish Rifles, 2nd Bn.
Grave Reference:……………S. 39.
Cemetery:………………………BUNGAY CEMETERY
Additional Information:
Husband of Hilda F. Bass (formerly Gamble), of "El Nido," Hemel Hempstead, Herts. Born at Dublin. Proceeded to France Aug., 1914, twice wounded.
CWGC: www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/397107/GAMBLE,%20ROBERT
SDGW records that Serial number 7 C.Q.M.S Robert Gamble was Killed in Action while serving on the Home Front with the 2nd Garrison Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment. He was previously 8833 “R.LR.Rifles”. Robert was born St Mary’s Dublin and enlisted Dublin. No place of residence is shown.
The Medal Index Card for Serial Number 7 Acting Colour Serjeant Robert Gamble, Royal Irish Regiment, is held at the National Archive under reference WO 372/7/194690
discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D2280354
I could not find a record for the death of Robert in England and Wales.
Initially the SDGW unit didn’t make sense – the 2nd (Home Service) Garrison Battalion was raised in Dublin in March 1916 and remained there until April 1918 when it was renamed and moved to France.
A further search then turned up that Company Quartermaster Serjeant Robert Gamble was actually Killed in Action in Dublin during the Easter Rising. He was part of a party from Beggar’s Bush Barrack that was attempting to dislodge a party of Rebels who were sniping on the Barracks from the Railway Line.
www.irishmedals.org/participants-in-the-1916-rising_1.html
On the day
Today in Irish History, April 26, 1916, The battle at Mount Street Bridge
In many locations during the Easter Rising, particularly at Jacobs Factory, the Four Courts and Bolands Mill, the Volunteers barely saw a British soldier all week. Rather their positions were isolated and bombarded from distance.
Where, however, the British assaulted Volunteer positions dominating the routes into the city, fighting was much more bloody. There they were drawn into street fighting, with its invisible snipers and sudden close range cross-fires, which negated their superiority in men and firepower. This happened mainly at three locations, Mount Street Bridge, South Dublin Union/Marrowbone lane and North King Street.
At Mount Street, on the approach to the city centre from the port at Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire), a Volunteer outpost manned by only 17 men, armed with rifles and hand guns, faced the frontal assault of a battalion of British troops.
The rebels there, nominally under the command of Eamon de Valera in Bolands Mill, but under the direct control of Mick Malone, a twenty eight year old carpenter, had taken up their positions on Mount Street and Northumberland Road on Easter Monday, April 24. That day on Mount Street, a group of reserve volunteer soldiers, nicknamed in Dublin, the “Gorgeous Wrecks” (because of their advanced age and their tunics’ inscriptions ‘Georgius Rex’), unwittingly stumbled upon the rebel position and four were killed before they scrambled into safety at Beggars Bush barracks.
Had the rebels known of the weakness of the British garrison, they could have taken Beggars Bush barracks (held initially by the army catering staff and 17 rifles) with relative ease. As it was they occupied the stately Clanwilliam House – commanding the crossing over the Grand Canal – and two houses on Northumberland road, an upper class, leafy, red-bricked neighbourhood.
On April 26, they were faced by a British regiment, the Sherwood Foresters, just off the boat from a training depot in England, and so inexperienced that they had to be shown on the pier at Kingstown how to fire and reload their weapons. On top of that, they had left behind their grenades and their Lewis machine guns had been lost in the crossing. Marching up through the suburbs, they were warmly applauded by the upper class crowds still enjoying the Spring Show at the Royal Dublin Society, until they stumbled into the crossfire at Northumberland Road – between two Volunteers in house at number 25 (notably Mick Malone armed with a Mauser automatic pistol) and another four at St Stephen’s Parochial Hall. Ten soldiers were hit in the first attack.
Although there was an alternative crossing of the canal available just a street away at Baggot Street, which would have flanked the Volunteers’ position, General Lowe ordered that the bridge at Mount street be taken “at all costs”. For the rest of the day, at the sound of whistles every twenty minutes, waves of hapless troops, led by officers with drawn swords, charged up the Road, only to be shot down. By the evening, the road was carpeted with dead and wounded British troops, many moaning in pain and trying feebly to drink from their water bottles.
www.theirishstory.com/2011/04/26/today-in-irish-history-a...
Throughout the battle the Volunteer positions were supported by sniper fire from Boland’s Bakery and the nearby railway tracks. Their actions kept the small British garrison in the adjacent Beggars Bush Barracks pinned down for the duration of the Rising. Sniper fire from each side resulted in many civilian casualties. Mrs Elizabeth Kane was shot dead and her daughter seriously wounded, as was Mr. Hayter, a local grocer. Mr C. Hyland who assisted the wounded Sherwood Foresters on the bridge was shot dead as he stood in the doorway of his house. A British officer, Captain Gerrard, stationed in the nearby barracks recalls,
One of the sentries in Beggars Bush Barracks, about Tuesday evening, said to me, ‘I beg your pardon, sir, I have just shot two girls.’ I said, ‘what on earth did you do that for?’ He said, ‘I thought they were rebels. I was told they were dressed in all classes of attire.’ At a range of about two hundred yards I saw two girls-about twenty (years old) – lying dead.
www.rte.ie/tv/whodoyouthinkyouare/social_diarmuid1.html
Some sources say that throughout the battle at Mount Street Bridge, the Volunteer positions were supported by sniper fire from Boland’s Bakery and the nearby railway tracks. Their actions kept the small British garrison in the adjacent Beggars Bush Barracks pinned down for the duration of the Rising. Other historical notes would suggest, however, that while De Valera had over a hundred Volunteers, only two streets away in Boland’s Mill, his command never reinforced the Volunteers at Mount Street.
thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-battle-of-mount-str...
On Wednesday, Captain Gerrard led a party in an attempt to get to grip with the “Sinn Feiners”.
“As soon as I got over the wall, at a range of about 200 yards, about eight Sinn Feiners advanced from the direction of the city to meet us. I saw them coming towards us firing. There was what they call a fairly sharp firefight. These men were standing up, not lying down. They came out of their trenches to meet us. They were very brave, I remember.”
From Witnesses: Inside the Easter Rising by Annie Ryan.
books.google.co.uk/books?id=T58HBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT165&...
Company Quartermaster Serjeant Robert Gamble - 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Rifles 1916
??? C.QMR SERJT
R.GAMBLE
Royal Irish Rifles
26th April 1916 Age 28
Not on the Bungay War Memorial
GAMBLE, ROBERT
Rank:……………………………..Company Quartermaster Serjeant
Service No:…………………….8833
Date of Death:……………….26/04/1916
Age:………………………………..28
Regiment:………………………Royal Irish Rifles, 2nd Bn.
Grave Reference:……………S. 39.
Cemetery:………………………BUNGAY CEMETERY
Additional Information:
Husband of Hilda F. Bass (formerly Gamble), of "El Nido," Hemel Hempstead, Herts. Born at Dublin. Proceeded to France Aug., 1914, twice wounded.
CWGC: www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/397107/GAMBLE,%20ROBERT
SDGW records that Serial number 7 C.Q.M.S Robert Gamble was Killed in Action while serving on the Home Front with the 2nd Garrison Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment. He was previously 8833 “R.LR.Rifles”. Robert was born St Mary’s Dublin and enlisted Dublin. No place of residence is shown.
The Medal Index Card for Serial Number 7 Acting Colour Serjeant Robert Gamble, Royal Irish Regiment, is held at the National Archive under reference WO 372/7/194690
discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D2280354
I could not find a record for the death of Robert in England and Wales.
Initially the SDGW unit didn’t make sense – the 2nd (Home Service) Garrison Battalion was raised in Dublin in March 1916 and remained there until April 1918 when it was renamed and moved to France.
A further search then turned up that Company Quartermaster Serjeant Robert Gamble was actually Killed in Action in Dublin during the Easter Rising. He was part of a party from Beggar’s Bush Barrack that was attempting to dislodge a party of Rebels who were sniping on the Barracks from the Railway Line.
www.irishmedals.org/participants-in-the-1916-rising_1.html
On the day
Today in Irish History, April 26, 1916, The battle at Mount Street Bridge
In many locations during the Easter Rising, particularly at Jacobs Factory, the Four Courts and Bolands Mill, the Volunteers barely saw a British soldier all week. Rather their positions were isolated and bombarded from distance.
Where, however, the British assaulted Volunteer positions dominating the routes into the city, fighting was much more bloody. There they were drawn into street fighting, with its invisible snipers and sudden close range cross-fires, which negated their superiority in men and firepower. This happened mainly at three locations, Mount Street Bridge, South Dublin Union/Marrowbone lane and North King Street.
At Mount Street, on the approach to the city centre from the port at Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire), a Volunteer outpost manned by only 17 men, armed with rifles and hand guns, faced the frontal assault of a battalion of British troops.
The rebels there, nominally under the command of Eamon de Valera in Bolands Mill, but under the direct control of Mick Malone, a twenty eight year old carpenter, had taken up their positions on Mount Street and Northumberland Road on Easter Monday, April 24. That day on Mount Street, a group of reserve volunteer soldiers, nicknamed in Dublin, the “Gorgeous Wrecks” (because of their advanced age and their tunics’ inscriptions ‘Georgius Rex’), unwittingly stumbled upon the rebel position and four were killed before they scrambled into safety at Beggars Bush barracks.
Had the rebels known of the weakness of the British garrison, they could have taken Beggars Bush barracks (held initially by the army catering staff and 17 rifles) with relative ease. As it was they occupied the stately Clanwilliam House – commanding the crossing over the Grand Canal – and two houses on Northumberland road, an upper class, leafy, red-bricked neighbourhood.
On April 26, they were faced by a British regiment, the Sherwood Foresters, just off the boat from a training depot in England, and so inexperienced that they had to be shown on the pier at Kingstown how to fire and reload their weapons. On top of that, they had left behind their grenades and their Lewis machine guns had been lost in the crossing. Marching up through the suburbs, they were warmly applauded by the upper class crowds still enjoying the Spring Show at the Royal Dublin Society, until they stumbled into the crossfire at Northumberland Road – between two Volunteers in house at number 25 (notably Mick Malone armed with a Mauser automatic pistol) and another four at St Stephen’s Parochial Hall. Ten soldiers were hit in the first attack.
Although there was an alternative crossing of the canal available just a street away at Baggot Street, which would have flanked the Volunteers’ position, General Lowe ordered that the bridge at Mount street be taken “at all costs”. For the rest of the day, at the sound of whistles every twenty minutes, waves of hapless troops, led by officers with drawn swords, charged up the Road, only to be shot down. By the evening, the road was carpeted with dead and wounded British troops, many moaning in pain and trying feebly to drink from their water bottles.
www.theirishstory.com/2011/04/26/today-in-irish-history-a...
Throughout the battle the Volunteer positions were supported by sniper fire from Boland’s Bakery and the nearby railway tracks. Their actions kept the small British garrison in the adjacent Beggars Bush Barracks pinned down for the duration of the Rising. Sniper fire from each side resulted in many civilian casualties. Mrs Elizabeth Kane was shot dead and her daughter seriously wounded, as was Mr. Hayter, a local grocer. Mr C. Hyland who assisted the wounded Sherwood Foresters on the bridge was shot dead as he stood in the doorway of his house. A British officer, Captain Gerrard, stationed in the nearby barracks recalls,
One of the sentries in Beggars Bush Barracks, about Tuesday evening, said to me, ‘I beg your pardon, sir, I have just shot two girls.’ I said, ‘what on earth did you do that for?’ He said, ‘I thought they were rebels. I was told they were dressed in all classes of attire.’ At a range of about two hundred yards I saw two girls-about twenty (years old) – lying dead.
www.rte.ie/tv/whodoyouthinkyouare/social_diarmuid1.html
Some sources say that throughout the battle at Mount Street Bridge, the Volunteer positions were supported by sniper fire from Boland’s Bakery and the nearby railway tracks. Their actions kept the small British garrison in the adjacent Beggars Bush Barracks pinned down for the duration of the Rising. Other historical notes would suggest, however, that while De Valera had over a hundred Volunteers, only two streets away in Boland’s Mill, his command never reinforced the Volunteers at Mount Street.
thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-battle-of-mount-str...
On Wednesday, Captain Gerrard led a party in an attempt to get to grip with the “Sinn Feiners”.
“As soon as I got over the wall, at a range of about 200 yards, about eight Sinn Feiners advanced from the direction of the city to meet us. I saw them coming towards us firing. There was what they call a fairly sharp firefight. These men were standing up, not lying down. They came out of their trenches to meet us. They were very brave, I remember.”
From Witnesses: Inside the Easter Rising by Annie Ryan.
books.google.co.uk/books?id=T58HBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT165&...