Thomas Louis Enright RAMC Dr

[donalmcmahon]

I'm working on an article for a Co. Kerry newspaper to mark the centenary of the death in Salonika (where he is buried) of Thomas Louis Enright, d.19 March 1918, aged 29. I have got the basic docs (MIC, Medal Roll etc.) but just cannot pin him to a particular unit whose war diary I could follow (with possibly a mention of him in it).  I'd like to have something concrete for the article. He trained in Dublin in the Royal College of Surgeons which mentions him in a   roll of honour  with the note 'Mentioned in dispatches' (I'd love to read that dispatch). His death was reported in the Irish Independent, 29th March, with the circumstances (motor-car accident) being reported later on 27th April.

 

You may well say that I've left it very late before sending out a last-minute appeal here for help.  Yes, indeed I have. My excuse is that I have spent most of my time over the past few years researchiing my own grandfather, Thomas Enright, a cousin of Thomas Louis, both from Listowel, Co. Kerry. My grandfather emigrated to Canada and enlisted with the 29th Vancouver Bn. He fought in  France, rose to being 2nd Lieut., returned to Ireland and was shot at the end of the War of Independence.  The Canadians have wonderful, undamaged service records, now all digitized. So I have hospital records aplenty for my grandfather but nothing whatever on his cousin who served for  most of the war in various field hospitals, I presume. (Incidentally, the RCSI brought out a fine book for the centenary telling all about the heroic work done by the RAMC, and listing among the alumni doctors who served Thomas Louis and his brother James Ignatius (yes, James Ignatius, his brother, also served as a doctor, happily surviving and practising later in Dublin for many years) but, alas, not giving any hospital where one could find out a little about the great work they did.)

 

One clue for Dr Thomas which I have from his 85+ year-old nephew is this:  he wrote home to his mother in March 1915  giving the address '10th Bn,  Rifle Bde, Witley Camp, Godalming'.  Now I followed the 10th Bn (20th Div.). His 'theatre-of-war-when-entered' date matches that of the arrival in France of the 10th in July 1915.  But the Rifle Brigade didn't go on to Greece, as far as I can establish. I'd love to know what hospital unit he was with in far-away Salonika. Jim was able to link his other doctor uncle with the 2 Prisoner of War Hospital, Abassia.  So I think I have a lead there for him. But, so far, nothing for his brother Thomas Louis.

 

Any information would be much appreciated.

 

Donal McMahon,  Dublin

 

 

 

[charlie962]

 

Donal

ForcesWarRecords have a hospital admission when he was brought in dead. It says at the time he was RAMC, attached 9th Motor Ambulance Convoy

 

Charlie

 

War Diary here but hasn't been digitised so requires a visit!

       

 

Perhaps the car accident that killed him fits with Motor Convoy duties ?

Edited 6 March , 2018 by charlie962

[charlie962]

London Gazette says Temp Lt RAMC 1/2/15

[donalmcmahon]

Charlie962 and MrSwan

 

Thank you for your wonderful help!  And so fast!  Thanks MrSwan but I already had those Gazette records. Charlie, you gave me the vital link to a unit. I've been on the look-out for that for so long and was getting nowhere. Ancestry had nothing more to give and I was wary of signing up for any more genealogy sites. But there you are, Forces Records comes up with the goods!  So I've taken out a year's sub to see what more I could find there that I haven't found elsewhere.  As you say, I'll have to go to Kew to see the Motor Ambulance diary. but it will be worth it.

 

What was reported in the Irish papers at the time and conveyed to his father in Listowel was that the car Thomas Louis was either a passenger in or was driving himself swerved to avoid a pedestrian, hit a bank and turned over with fatal results.  The CWGC papers show the consultation with the family re inscription on the headstone etc.  A group went out from the Western  Front Association (Dublin branch) last year and they kindly took photos. (See photo of grave below In Lembet Road cemetery.)

 

Anyway, thanks very much on behalf of the Enright family for helping us salute the bravery of this young doctor who died so far from home on 19th March a hundred years ago. As I say,  the editor of the Kerryman has accepted the idea of an article which I'm in the process of writing. I 'm looking forward to speaking up for these WWI Irishmen so that the people of their home town are aware of what they did for Ireland and for peace in Europe. 

 

Donal

 

PS   You may have heard of Fergal Keane, a journalist with the BBC. He has done a lot of reporting on various war zones in the present day as well as historical programmes on WWI.  He brought out a book in December last entitled Wounds, all about the years 1916-1913 in Ireland.  Now, like Thomas Louis Enright and the other two Enrights,  he is from Listowel where there was an awful lot of troubled times in those years. He includes my grandfather, Thomas Enright, in his general survey, using an article I wrote.  Fergal's father went to England and Fergal grew up there, while coming back to Listowel for holidays over the years. We're coming up to the centenary of our War of Independence and, after that, our Civil War -- desperate times altogether.  My grandfather fought his guts out with the Canadians and was lucky to survive (invalided out in August 1917).  Then he came back to Ireland to find it completely changed by 1916 etc., with no recognition any more for what he, and his likes, had done. Ah, yes, we have a troubled history here in Ireland.  You feel it when it comes down through your family. If anyone wants to read this, they're very welcome -- the potted history of my family in the form of an article in the Irish Times, available  here.   

  

Edited 7 March , 2018 by donalmcmahon
proof reading

[petestarling]

British Medical Journal of 13 April 1918 page 438 gives a brief mention of his death . I can not find a full obit or photograph.

[charlie962]

22 hours ago, donalmcmahon said:

the years 1916-1913

??

22 hours ago, donalmcmahon said:

no recognition any more for what he, and his likes, had done

Have you found that only very recently there is an acceptance that such men can now be talked about and commemorated with pride? Without venturing into the uncertainties of  current politics (difficult to avoid but forbidden on the forum) it is a good sign of healing.

 

Please do tell us what you find from the war diary research.

 

Charlie

[donalmcmahon]

Yes, charlie962, I should have written 1916-1923. Stupid of me and disconcerting for the reader, I know.  I've spent the last 8/9 years uncovering by grandfather's story which (as I wrote in the Irish Times article) was shrouded in mystery.  Since he served with the CEF,  my focus has been mainly on them.  His cousin, Thomas Louis, has intrigued me for many years, however, ever since I saw his name on a family tree made out by my father for my mother (née Enright, daughter of Thomas) --  Thomas Louis d. young, Salonika.  Where was that, I asked myself.  As a result of my work on my grandfather, I came next  to focus on his cousin, the doctor.  But the paucity of documents for the latter compared to the c.80 page (now digitized) service file for the CEF man makes it a huge mountain to climb at this stage of my life (retired 2013).  So I don't know how far I'll go with it.  We'll see.  I discovered his nephew here in Dublin about two years ago, which was stimulating, given that I had never really known anyone from that side of the Enright family.

 

Thanks, petestarling, for that reference. The Irish Independent had a picture of  him (it seems a family one) in its report on the circumstances of his death (29.3.1918). 

 

Donal

[Guest]

hello Donal

I am a grandniece of Thomas Louis Enright-my uncle Tod Enright a namesake of Thomas Louis Enright says that Thomas Louis  was in Salonika on an army posting and my mother Peggy O'Connor nee Enright used to say that her uncle died in an ambulance convoy accident on a bridge and was buried in Salonika.

We  may  have his medals and I will look into this some more.

Angela

 

[charlie962]

Oh the power of the Forum !

[donalmcmahon]

Angela, 

 

My exclamation of surprise and wonder is  even louder than charlie962's.  That family tree I mentioned in my Friday post has, of course, your mother Peggy on it.  I  met your uncle Todd (in summer 2014). So imagine meeting on a WWI forum some family members that were just names on paper up till then!

 

Here is a nice link:  the  Roll of Licentiates of the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland (RCSI) contains the signature and address of each person getting his/her Licentiate, and there for 2 July 1914 (in the roll for 1914-1916) is Thomas''s entry, in a fine flourishing hand -- alas, a hand that would be still in four years' time. See it here.

 

Donal

 

PS   I  said 'his/her Licentiate' because, on checking, I saw that there was indeed one lady graduate, one out of 21 receiving their parchment that day, a Susanna Good, from Littile Island, Cork.

 

PS again. I owe the fine photograph of Thomas Louis's grave posted on the 7th to a member of the WFA, Dublin branch, Trevor Adams.  Trevor went out to the Balkans with some other members and afterwards gave a talk on their travels to a WFA meeting on 20.2.2016.  At the end he put up the photos of graves he had been asked to photograph, and there I saw up on the screen, with great surprise and pleasure, the above photo of Thomas Louis.  I thanked him then and I thank him now.

Edited 13 March , 2018 by donalmcmahon

[charlie962]

On 06/03/2018 at 21:13, donalmcmahon said:

But the Rifle Brigade didn't go on to Greece, as far as I can establish

 

Just happened to be reading the 1918 Kings Royal Rifle Corps Chronicle and there was his name.

 

p92    3rd Battalion KRRC

"One sad piece of news reached us in Orjac on 20th March (1918), namely, that Capt T L Enright RAMC, who had been the Battalion Medical Officer for more than a year during 1916 and 1917, and had left us on being appointed for duty to a Base Hospital at Salonika, had been killed in a motor car accident on the 19th. He was much regreted, as he was not only a good doctor but an excellent all-round fellow"

 

I've missed the centenary deadline but thought you and Angela would like to read this rather fine comment.

 

Charlie

[donalmcmahon]

Hello, Charlie962,

 

What a nice surprise to read your post with its fascinating bit of information!  Thank you very much for spotting the reference and reporting it here.

 

It is really big news being able to link TL with a battalion.  Reading the diary may throw up some further references.  I'l certainly be very interested to see just how long he was with the 3rd (I had him in the 10th -- he says so in a postcard to his mother in March 1915 from  Witley Camp, Godalming). While the 3 Bn link is really welcome, there's a puzzling aspect to it also. A vital piece of information was the document from Forces Records stating that he was on HT Manitou which sailed from Marseilles to Salonika on 20.12.1915.  So the statement of him being 'more than a year during 1916 and 1917' with the KRRC has me flummoxed. 

 

As well as the link to a battalion, there's the lovely moving tribute to the man himself: 'not only a good doctor but an excellent all-round fellow'. Great to have that, Charlie. 

 

Now I'm very sorry for not coming back here to report on the article. It appeared in the Kerryman on Wednesday, 9 May 2018, p. 27. It took up the whole page, with his headstone (as seen above in an earlier post) being given pride of place. It looked really well.  Read the piece here but minus the illustrations (it's an Irish Independent link which means that the Indo must have some kind of commercial interest in this provincial newspaper).  Another link is here.   Angela (O'Connor) wrote a letter about the article which was published a week later. (I won't give the link here in case Angela herself would like to do so.)  

 

Thanks to everyone who helped me with the article  I have expressed my individual thanks above as the contributions came in. And now thanks to you, Charlie962,  for this latest unexpected little gem. 

 

Donal

Edited 22 July , 2018 by donalmcmahon
adding information

[Martin Moore Blenervile Tralee]

Martin Moore, Tralee here. Great That T L Enright is remembered. There is a photo of him in Irish Independent of 21 March 1916. I am interested in his brother, James I Enright.

 

Martin.