8 royal irish fusiliers

[nevgeoran]

hi all,can anybody tell me where the 8th royal irish fusiliers where during april 1916?am trying to find out about a thomas kelly 3619 who DOW on 26 apr.just want to know what actions did the fusiliers take part in for thomas to get wounded.thanks

[sotonmate]

ng

His Bn was with 49 Brigade of 16 Division.The Division landed in France in Dec 1915 and concentrated it's forces near Bethune,but he wouldn't have been with them as his Medal Index Card doesn't show an entitlement to a 1914-15 Star. A pointer to when 8RIF arrived can be deduced from the War Diary which is at Kew Archives,it shows a date of commencement of duty as Feb 1916. The reference is WO95/1978. You will know where exactly the Bn were from reading that for the period before he died of wounds. There is also a clue from the War Graves site (CWGC) which has him buried in Bethune Town Cemetery. There was a Casualty Clearing Station there (No 33) at the time of his wounding and the Cemetery would have been where they buried their dead.

I would say that he was likely a casualty of the day-to-day activity of the front line,shelling, sniping.raiding,etc.

Soldiers Died in the Great War (SDGW) gives him as born in Dundalk,resident in Carrickfergus and enlisted in Newbridge Co Kildare.It also shows a total of 36 soldiers from this Battalion died in April 1916. Three on 25th,8 on the 26th,and 10 on the 27th were but a few instances. So there may have been a bit of a lively action at that time.

There is no service record surviving that I could detect. Maybe someone else can !

Sotonmate

[nevgeoran]

thanks sotonmate,guess i'll have to trek to kew gardens then.cheers.