Ebrington Barracks - Londonderry

[saintconor]

Hi

I have recently recieved the marriage certificate of a Great Great Aunt. She was married on the 28th December 1915 to a William Stewart. His occupation was given as 'Army' and his place of residence as 'Ebrington Barracks'.

I would love to track down the new relative but a search of the medal index cards throws up over 900 possibles. If I knew who was stationed there at the time of the wedding then I might be able to find out.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

Regards

Conor

[iain mchenry]

Hi Conor,

I may be wrong here, but I think Ebrington Bks was then a naval base, known as HMS Sea Eagle. The only reason I say this is that I have a photo of my Grandfather on a VE day parade on the Drill Square of HMS Sea Eagle. Maybe Ebrington Bks and HMS Sea Eagle co - existed?. When I was stationed in NI it was Ebrington Bks, but there was a naval memorial in front of the HQ building.

Regards

Iain

[saintconor]

Hi Iain,

Thank you for your reply. I have been able to find this bit out from the following site:

http://www.ilex-urc.com/index.cfm/do/EbringtonHistory

It would appear that it was an army base also. The Cheshires left in August 1914. If I had to guess I would think he was a local lad and a member of one of the Inniskilling Fusiliers as this was the local Regiment.

"THE FIRST WORLD WAR PERIOD (1914-1918):

In 1914 the barracks was home to the 1st Battalion The Cheshire Regiment and the three old postcard images reflect this period of the barracks history very well. (See Appendix 24 & 25) It is also recorded that elements of Irish Regiments ie 1st, 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the Royal Inniskillen Dragoon Guards were stationed there. Their magazine 'Sprig of Shilleleagh' was printed there during the First World War, but it was moved to Oswestry after 1918.

An interesting item from the 'Sprig of Shilleleagh' dated March 1915, records the thoughts of a wounded soldier from the Inniskillings stationed at Ebrington and was returned to its hospital and he was asked what he thought of France:

' To be sure sorr, its not much of France that I've seen. I got into a train alongside a trooper, there was such a divil of a jam I could not see out of the window. When I got out of the train I was hit by a piece of shrapnel, got put into an ambulance and being on my back I could not see anything until I got back to Dover - that's what I saw of France!'

Two famous writers were stationed in Ebrington Barracks during part of the First World War. They were the poet Francis Ledwidge(1887-1916) and the 18th Baron Dunsany, Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett (1878-1957).

Francis Ledwidge was born in Slane, County Meath and was always writing poetical untutored verses. His local landlord was Lord Dunsany, who was also interested in the Celtic revival. Lord Dunsany joined the Royal Inniskilling Fusilers in 1914 and Francis Ledwidge also joined the same regiment and became a corporal. The regiment was sent to Ebrington Barracks in 1916 after serving in Serbia, Greece and Egypt. Lord Dunsany rented a house near Derry called Government House and he allowed Francis to have a room in it to write his poems. While he was in the barracks he composed some forty seven poems and his poem entitled 'Derry' is shown in Appendix 26. He was much interested in the 1916 rising and it was Lord Dunsany who prevented him from deserting to join the Rising in Dublin.

The Regiment was transferred to France in December 1916 and sadly Francis Ledwidge was killed in on the 31st July 1917. He is buried in Boesinghe Cemetrey and has a Plaque erected to his memory in Slane, County Meath."