22754 Pte J McGarrity Royal Inniskillings WW1

[Sydney85]

Hi everyone,

 

I've been reading through the forum and have been really impressed with the wealth of knowledge you share with those who post!

 

Anyway, I've been working on the family tree and part of my research has been sifting through word of mouth family folklore. Being from an Irish Nationalist background in Northern Ireland no one in my family ever talked about family members having fought in WW1. Turns out three of my family fought in WW1 and the family folklore was as follows; two (Joseph and Michael) were in the Irish Volunteers before the war and joined following a speech by an Irish politician who had called on Irishmen to join in the war effort so Ireland would get home rule. A cousin from Scotland (James) also joined at around the same time. Supposedly James had tried to escape conscription by trying get to Ireland but was stopped in Dublin by the RIC and returned to Scotland for enlistment. Two of the cousins were killed (Michael and James) within a short space of time (rumour had it they were killed in the same week and their bodies were never recovered) and Joseph survived but after the war ended was disappointed that the Irish demands for home rule were not met and he burned his army books and medals. Joe refused to talk about what he did during the war so that's where the trail ends.

 

So the family members involved were:

 

22754 J (Joseph/Joe) McGarrity - Royal Inniskillings 8btn /7-8btn

271 J (James) McGarrity - Highland Light Infantry - 11btn KIA 5/02/1916

4107 M (Michael) McGarrity - Royal Inniskillings - 2btn KIA 12/02/2016

 

So it appears that some of the  family stories are true, I also found a rather blackened MSM with J McGarrity written on the side. I also found a pacing Cane, which according to the Professor of History at the University in Belfast is likely of German origin as it isn't British. I'll try and get a photo of this if any of you are interested.

 

What i'm trying to do at the moment is piece together as much of the soldiers movements as possible. I've found the medal records of all three (or so I think) and I've found some newspaper articles written about James who was one of a group of friends from one area in Glasgow who were all killed. 

 

As I'm not having any luck with the soldier records where should I look next? I'd like to find out as much as possible about Joe as he was awarded the MSM. His unit appears to have fought on several of the major battles of WW1 (the Somme, Messines etc) so i'm hoping to find out that we was involved/named as being part of a particular action and this is written down somewhere. At the moment i'm trawling through the battalion war diaries but some further direction would be great!

 

I also had some family who fought in WW2 whom i'm hoping to research but that doesn't belong in this forum.

 

 

[Derek Black]

Sydney,

 

An interesting family story you have there to explore.

Here's the MSM notice in the London Gazette: https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/31370/page/6886

 

Cheers,

Derek

[Sydney85]

Thanks Derek, I've read a little about the MSM and found the listings for Joe's MSM in both the London and Edinburgh gazette. Do you think it's likely the msm was given just as a thankyou for serving throughout the war or was it usually given for valour in the field etc? 

[Pere]

Sydney, I know of an Inniskilling Fusilier who was  awarded the MSM in 1919.. The family believe it was services rendered (whatever that means) during the war.

[Alisonmallen62]

My great uncle was in the Skins in Ww2 there are a couple of forums dedicated to them who may be able to help with Ww1 but you possibly know this already.

[MickLeeds]

Hello.

 

Have you seen the will of Michael McGarrity at the NA of Ireland ?

 

http://soldierswills.nationalarchives.ie/reels/sw/McGarrityM_E157809.pdf

 

Mick.

[johntanner]

The gratuity calculator suggests:

 

James enlisted in September 1914; and 

 

Michael was serving in August 1914 as he qualified for the 1914 Star, landing in France on 14 September 1914. His number suggests he may have been a reservist recalled on the outbreak of war.

 

[ss002d6252]

1 hour ago, johntanner said:

The gratuity calculator suggests:

 

James enlisted in September 1914; and 

 

Michael was serving in August 1914 as he qualified for the 1914 Star, landing in France on 14 September 1914. His number suggests he may have been a reservist recalled on the outbreak of war.

 

I'm glad my calculator is being of use 

#22757 was allocated March 1915 that would indicate that Joseph had his number allocated around the same time.

Craig

[Sydney85]

Thanks guys,

 

Where would you all recommend that I go next? I have relatives still living in England and Ireland who can visit Enniskillen Castle and the Archive in Kew. I'm guessing finding the actual service records is unlikely given that most of the records have been destroyed.

 

I've noted that Michael signed up in Omagh, which is the nearest town to where Joseph lived (Beragh). Perhaps they joined up together which would fit in as they were related?

 

Mickleeds - yes I've seen the will before - amazing to get to see his handwriting like that!

 

Did the British army keep records of roll calls or have keep muster lists? When I was younger I worked at the Royal Ulster Rifles museum in Belfast and I remember them having these large red books which (from memory) had lists of all the soldiers for each year, but I can't find any records of them anywhere and I'm not even sure that museum is still open!

 

Bernard 

[Jervis]

Late to this thread, but only today I have discovered Michael McGarrity was a casualty of the Great War. He and his family shared the adjoining cottage to my ancestors in rural Donegal. 

Of course the first internet search result on the subject was the Great war Forum - it never fails to amaze me!

I see the OP has not been back in several years, nevertheless I will post the newspaper articles (Strabane Chronicle) that alerted me to Michael McGarrity. The newspaper article confirms the speculation above that McGarrity was a pre-war reservist. 

Jervis