Photograph of Section of Lancer Regiment
Seated in the front row, slightly to the right tallest man is Robert Francis Kinnimont born in 1896 in County Down, Ireland. Like a lot of Irishmen he rarely spoke about his time in the British army. We think he was a Captain. He wore white or cream Jodphurs (trousers) and riding boots. The men are seated by rank, there are two officers seated in the middle and two non-commissioned officers either side of them, and all the privates are standing. The second officer is holding a riding crop - again an indication of Cavalry perhaps? The privates are wearing puttees, which cover the boots like a sock on the outside. He was a member of one of the Lancer Regiments we don't know based on the hat badge which is a skull and crossbones. The street name appears to be Brauerei which is Brewery. It is in Aschaffenburg which is a small town in Rhineland near the frontier imposed on the Germans after the war. As you see from the writing of her grandfather the men are part of the Rhine Bridge Guard There are two Vickers machine guns and an ammunition box in the photograph. We don't know what the Franz Ludwig on the wall signifies!! Maybe somebody could help us with that. This period of Robert's life would have been Peacekeeping, as hostilities ended in 1918. He had participated in fighting before that. Robert spoke some German, probably learned in his time here and was able to sing in German. He was a career soldier and went on to be posted to Palestine, Malta and possibly Africa based on the other pictures in the collection alongside this one. He returned to Ireland and got married and lived the remainder of his life in Ballinteer Gardens, Wales, Stillorgan, and Dalkey. He worked as a Civil Servant.