Reginald Arthur Herbert Orpen-Palmer

Col. Humphreys

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Colonel E. Thomas Humphreys
1st Bn., Leinster Regiment (Royal Canadians)
Humphreys

The officers of the First Battalion, Leinster regiment, known from their historical connection with the Dominion as the Royal Canadians, which regiment has just disbanded after presenting their colors to the King at Windsor Castle, are giving their regimental plate and trophies in trust to the Canadian Government “until the regiment is again raised, as a token of their regards for the Great Dominion, which gave birth to the battalion.”

(The Expositor, 29 Jun 1922, 1)

Born in London in Dover, Kent on 5 November 1878, Edward Thomas Humphreys graduated from Sandhurst in 1898 and was  commissioned with the Lancashire Fusiliers. He served in the Boer War and in France, Salonika and the Middle East during the Great War. In May 1918, he was promoted to command the 179th Brigade in the 60th Division, Egyptian Expeditionary Force. In September 1919 he transferred from the Lancashires to take command of the 1st Battalion, Leinster Regiment.

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Lt-Col. Murphy

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Lieutenant-Colonel A.D. Murphy†
2nd Bn., Leinster Regiment (Royal Canadians)
Murphy

The commanding officer seemed to bear a charmed life, and it became a belief in the Battalion that he could not be killed. But he exposed himself fearlessly not because he was invulnerable but because he was brave. No braver man than Alfred Durham Murphy ever stepped on French soil.

(Witton, The History of the Prince of Wales’s Leinster Regiment, vol. 2, 244)

When Major Alfred Durham Murphy assumed command of the 2nd Leinsters in August 1916 at the age of twenty-six, he was one of the youngest battalion commanders on the Western Front. Born on 4 July 1890 in Southwark, Surrey, England, was the son of a retired Tipperary colonel and joined his father’s regiment in 1911. He went to France in September 1914 with the 2nd Leinsters as a junior lieutenant but by May 1916 was second-in-command.

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Lt-Col. Orpen-Palmer

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Lieutenant-Colonel R.A.H. Orpen-Palmer
2nd Bn., Leinster Regiment (Royal Canadians)
OrpenPalmer

Now that the actual disbandment of the Battalion is about to commence, I wish all ranks to know how proud I have been to command such a body of men. At Home and Abroad, in peace and in war, whether in France, Belgium, Colchester or Silesia, the Battalion has won a fine reputation second to none, a reputation acknowledged everywhere by Brigade and Divisional Commanders. It is a grief and more to all of us that we see our splendid Regiment destroyed; but it is through no fault of our own, and we as Irishmen have done our duty, to our Country and our Empire.

(Lt-Col. Orpen-Palmer, Part 1 Orders, 5 June 1922)

Born in Dublin on 26 December 1877, Reginald Arthur Herbert Orpen-Palmer was commissioned a second lieutenant with the Leinster Regiment in 1898 and served in the Boer War. All three of his brothers served as officers in the First World War, including one who lost an eye fighting with the Leinster Regiment in fall 1914. Initial news reports misidentified R.A.H. Orpen-Palmer as the wounded brother but was adjutant for the 5th (Extra Reserve) Battalion until he went to France in April 1915.

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