Soldier's Rest, Galway

[LEUZEWOOD]

I recently purchased an 'Active Service' pocket bible from a flea market with the following handwritten inscription...

A. Akerman

J.C.M. (?)

Soldiers Rest

Galway

Presumably this was some sort of convalescent depot - can anyone provide any information please?

Also, searches for A. Akerman have not been conclusive, if anyone can make a connection?

Many Thanks

Tom

[johnboy]

Infantry Convalescent Unit?

[centurion]

There were two types of Soldiers Rest. The first was a series of facilities for soldiers away from their units (for example on leave) which contained a basic restaurant, reading room and sometimes overnight accommodation. There is already a thread on these somewhere with photos of some. Often used by soldiers from the Empire whilst on leave in Britain - for example one Australian infantryman visiting Londonderry writes "Stayed at the Soldiers' Rest Home and next morning (Tuesday) took a walk down the river" Round the world with the AIF. Sometimes referred to as The sailors and Soldiers Rest

The other is a convalescent home for recovering soldiers. Interestingly there is an account in an Adelaide paper of Lady Galway raising funds for one

[centurion]

Marie Carola Franciska Roselyne Galway (1876–1963) the daughter of an Irish baronet and a Bavarian countess married Sir Henry Galway who was Governor of South Australia, She founded the South Australian division of the British Red Cross Society; it was to assist the sick and wounded, and establish a missing persons bureau. She directed this organization until 1919, as she did the Belgian Relief Fund for which she produced the Lady Galway Belgium Book (1916). Founding president of the League of Loyal Women, a body that supplied comforts for servicemen. The Australian Red Cross under Lady Galway opened a number of Soldier;s Rest Homes run by Red Cross volunteers and VADs for returning soldiers who needed a period of convalescence. They may have been known unofficially as Galway Homes. Given this could your man have been Australian? He could have come back to Britain after the war bringing the bible with him.

[LEUZEWOOD]

Thank you Centurion, very interesting.

I'm wondering if Akerman was the original owner of the bible, and as that has been scrubbed out, perhaps JCM are the initials of the person who may have 'inherited' it somehow. Either way, sadly I doubt that I have enough concrete evidence to determine its origins.

Regards

Tom