A RARE memento of the 1916 Rising – from the perspective of “the other side” – has turned up at an auction house in the southeast of England and will be offered for sale next week.
The gold memorial locket was made for, and worn by, the mother of a young British officer killed, aged 21, on Easter Monday, the first day of the Rising in Dublin.
The locket, made of 15 carat gold, contains the photograph of Guy Vickery Pinfield, of Bishops Stortford in Hertfordshire, who was stationed in Dublin with the 8th King’s Royal Irish Hussars – a British army cavalry regiment. He was one of 116 British soldiers who died suppressing the Rising.
Memorabilia relating to the 1916 Rising is avidly collected in Ireland and is rising in value as the centenary year approaches. Most of the items bought and sold are of Irish provenance.
Dealers in military collectibles have confirmed items relating to British army involvement in the 1916 Rising are sometimes overlooked by collectors in Britain because of the shadow of the first World War. Two months after the Rising, the British army suffered the worst casualties in its history at the Somme.
The locket, with an estimate of just £400-£600 (€478-€717), has been consigned for sale by descendants of the soldier to fine art auctioneers Sworders, who will sell it next Tuesday at their Stansted auction rooms in Essex.
Spokesman John Black said Guy Vickery Pinfield was educated at Marlborough College and Clare College, Cambridge, and commissioned as 2nd Lieut into the 8th King’s Royal Irish Hussars on August 15th, 1914.
The locket was commissioned by his mother after his death in Dublin and engraved with the crest of his regiment with “Pristinae virtutis memores” (The memory of former valour) and, on the reverse side, his initials, GVP, and the date, April 24th, 1916.
Mr Black said Pinfield was an only son who played rugby for Rosslyn Park RFC in southwest London, and that “a memorial plaque to him can be found in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin”.
