On this day 103 years ago the following men from 26 Irish Counties died to the clack clack clack of the German Machine guns.

[museumtom]

Rooney, Frederick. (Dublin). Corporal. 8556.

Regiment/Service: Royal Dublin Fusiliers.

Unit: 1st Battalion.

Date of death: 06/08/1915.

Age: 21.

Born: Dublin.

Enlisted: Dublin.

Death: Died of wounds in Gallipoli.

Next of kin, etc: Listed in the 1911 Census with his mother Anne, and sister Teresa Rooney at Church Street, Arran Quay, Dublin.

Newspapers/Books etc: Evening Herald. 28/08/1915. Roll Of Honor. Rooney-Died of wounds in Gallipoli, August 6th, 1915, Corporal Frederick (Freddy) Rooney, 1st Battalion, Royal Dublin Fusiliers, aged 22 years, only and beloved son of Anne Rooney, late of 64 Church Street, Dublin. R. I. P.

There is an image with the following snippet in the Evening Herald. 01/09/1915. Corporal Frederick Rooney, 1st Royal Dublin Fusiliers, 22 years, died of wounds received in action at the Dardanelles on 6th August. He volunteered at the outbreak of war. He resided at 56 Church Street, Dublin.

Evening Herald. 05/08/1916. Rooney-First Anniversary-In loving memory of Corporal Frederick (Freddy) Rooney, 1st Battalion, Royal Dublin Fusiliers, aged 22, died of wounds received in action on August 6, 1915, at Gallipoli, Dardanelles, only beloved son of Annie Rooney, late of 54 Church Street. Our Lady of Mount Carmel intercede for him Masses will be offered in St Mary of the Angels, Church Street, and St Michan’s, Halston Street. -In health and strength he left his home. Not knowing death was near. But short and sudden was the call. On him we loved so dear. Oft times we sit and think of him. When we are all alone. For memory is the only thing. That grief can call its own. -Inserted by his loving mother and sister.

Grave/Memorial: III. A. 12.

Cemetery: Pink Farm Cemetery, Turkey.

 

Rooney, Frederick. (Dublin). Private. 10056.

Regiment/Service: Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers.

Unit: 1st Battalion.

Date of death: 01/07/1916.

Born: Dublin.

Enlisted: Enniskillen.

Death: Killed in Action.

Newspapers/Books etc: There is a badly faded image of this man, with the following text in the Evening Herald. 02/06/1917. Private F Rooney (10056), Inniskilling Fusiliers, missing July 1, 1917: Mother, 17 Little Mary Street.

Grave/Memorial: Pier and Face 4 D and 5 B.

Cemetery: Thiepval Memorial, France.

Edited 1 July , 2019 by museumtom

[Jervis]

Thanks Tom. I did not have those details from the paper. It does add some personal touch. Nor did I have any photos, so nice to put a face to the name.

[museumtom]

Happy to help, if you had his brothers names you never know what can be found.

[Michael Pegum]

4 hours ago, museumtom said:

Here you go Robert.

 

 

Robert?

 

The information about Arthur Robert Moore's death  ("Died in German hands") is surprising. Three eye-witnesses recorded him as having been severely wounded in the attack on Gommecourt, and he was last seen lying, unconscious, in the sunken road running east from Hébuterne. 60 yards from the German line. The site is a few yards from the entrance to Gommecourt British Cemetery No. 2.

 

He has no known grave, but he may be in one of the unidentified graves in that cemetery, which contains over 200 graves from 1st July, 1916.

 

I included biographies of Crozier and Moore in my book 'Our Fallen Members. The war casualties of the Kildare Street and Dublin University Clubs' (2015).

 

Michael

[museumtom]

Oops, Sorry Michael I was talking to a Robert just before I replied. Excellent book, my compliments!!

Kind regards.

 Tom.

[Karl Murphy]

Great list there MT - how many KIA on 1 July  is that in total BTW?

 

Speer, Albert Victor - not exactly a typical Irish name is it?

 

Must be a story behind that one I think!

 

My own Grandfather WRE Murphy served in the 1st South Staffords at Mametz that day but survived in one piece!

 

 

[museumtom]

Speer is a good old Donegal name.

[museumtom]

Died (suicide, accident or illness) 8.

Died of wounds 15.

Killed in action 438.

Not recorded 8.

[corisande]

9 hours ago, museumtom said:

Speer is a good old Donegal name.

 

True, and for readers of the forum, you  can check things like that on Irish Government Records site - click

 

Which will tell you that there were 2042 Speers born in Ireland between 1864 and 1918

[Guest]

Tom-Out of interest for Ireland and the Great War, I posited whether First Day was the worst day of the war for Ireland-or whether another day has that dubious honour. Of course, 1st July 1916 has the addition of the Ulster (= 9 counties) casualties(although there must be some overlap with you work).  Or is another  day one that should be called Ireland's Black Day-  Loos?  One of attrition battles of 1917 where RIR battalions were chewed up wholesale?  It would be interesting to know, if your database can be zpped for that info.

[museumtom]

Would this help? 

[Guest]

Spot on Tom.   I mention this as a "pub quiz" type fact- how bloody was 1st July 1916 for ALL of Ireland ? - whether the butcher's bill for the other 6 counties may mean that one looks at 1st July as a tragedy for ALL Ireland . It would be good to try and work out the Irish casualties for the remaining 6 counties to get to an All Ireland total. I wonder if this has been done to the same standards as your work on the 26 counties(or perhaps only 25...see above)-sorting out the actual Irish in Irish regiments and those who were killed serving in other regiments and corps of the British Army.  

    There is no political slant of mine to the actual events of 1st July 1916 but,alas, the historiography does suggest somewhat that later political considerations-and the (how can we put this politely?) "slight differences of opinion" may obscure Ireland's history for the Great War years.  Of course, 36th Ulster Div. took a thumping  but some of the literature seems to me to suggest that it was disproportionate-and that somehow 36th Ulster was involved in the British Great War when elsewhere in Ireland others were not.  That is, that because of later differences we do not know WHAT happened to Ireland as a whole on the Somme.

    Given the passage of time and the revivified flowering of Irish historiography that shrugs away the differences of the last century, then perhaps this may illumine 

[museumtom]

Thanks GUEST.

The political and opinion side of things I avoid like the plague, Ir order to speak on such things I would have to be knowledgeable on them, which I am not.I just follow the casualties, not the spin and propaganda. That is way too complicated.

Kind regards.

 Tom.

[Guest]

Point taken.  One small facet of  First Day is,of course, proportionately that MORE of the Irish who served on that day,whether killed or not, were volunteers, given both the lack of conscription in Irleand and the exemptions under MSA for Irish (of all backgrounds) to obtain exemption  in the rest of the UK.So we have the cute little historical paradox that MORE Irish who served were volunteers proportionately, compared with the rest of "Britain's War". Funny old world.  

[Bernard_Lewis]

Seeing those names is very sobering. And very sad. Not forgotten. 

 

Bernard

[Ilbury Welsh]

Tom, I have only just found this thread but may I say what a mammoth task you took on board and well done for it. You must be very proud. I feel I would benefit for owning volume 15 for my Walsh military research for my medals and own Walsh family research for County Cork. So can I ask, you have posted within this thread a number of replies with extensive details for certain soldiers. Is this typical for the majority of entries you have in each volume? Regards John

[museumtom]

Thank you John.

 You are asking me how long is a piece of string really. Some have minimal information, more have a lot. Besides S.D.G.W., C.W.G.C., I.M.R., sometimes there would be items from the B.M.D certificates, and records. Others would have additional information found in the newspapers, and books.

Here is a sparse one and a more in depth one.

Walsh, Andrew. (Cork). Lance Corporal. 682526.

Regiment/Service: London Regiment.

Unit: 22nd Battalion.

Date of death: 14/04/1917.

Born: Bandon, County Cork. Enlisted: Taines. Residence: Ashford Common.

Death: Killed in action.

Next of kin, etc: 02/06/1917. Skibbereen Eagle. Private Andrew Walsh, Royal Fusiliers, killed in action, a native of Gallows Hill, Bandon. Notes- Formerly he was with the Royal Fusiliers where his number was 24551.

Grave/Memorial: Enclosure No. 4 I. G. 24.

Cemetery: Bedford House Cemetery, Belgium.

 

Walsh, Cornelius. (Cork). Private. 7114.

Regiment/Service: Leinster Regiment.

Unit: 2nd Battalion.

Date of death: 18/10/1914.

Age: 32.

Born: Cork. Enlisted: Cork.

Death: Killed in action.

Next of kin, etc: Son of Cornelius and Ellen Walsh of Cork: Husband of Eliza Walsh, of 5 Bleasby Street, Cork.

Newspapers/Books etc: Cork Examiner. 16/11/1915. 0098. Soldier’s Family Pension. Important Prosecution. Before Messrs R F Starkie, R. M., (in the chair), P D O’Brien, H. C., M Egan, T. C., and J J Fitzgerald. Elizabeth Walsh, 5 Bleasby Street, of Gerald Griffin Street, was charged at the suit of District Inspector Simoy with having on the 31st May, and also on the 4th August, unlawfully and fraudulently obtained for herself, as the widow of the late Private Cornelius Walsh, a certain pension, that was to say-a soldier’s family pension, obtainable in pursuance of the statute and the King’s regulations, in that behalf, at the rate of 18s 6d per week, being the appropriate pension for the widow of a private soldier with two children, being females, living and under the age of 16 years, by means of a certain false representation, to wit, a representation that her two children, Ellen and Mary Esther, were alive and living with her, which representation was false in this particular, and was to any that her child Mary Esther had died and was not alive and was not living with her. Dr H A Wynne, Crown Solicitor, said that in that case he had been directed to appear in support of the two summonses that had been issued against the defendant. It was really a very sad case, and, personally, he was sorry that it had been thought necessary, in the public interest, that the defendant should be prosecuted. Defendant was the widow of a private in the Leinster Regiment, who was killed in action in October, 1914, and defendant’s misfortune did not end there, because in March she lost her little child, as the result of an accident, the child having been burned to death. As the widow of a soldier who was killed in action, with two children, defendant would be entitled to a pension of 18s 6d per week, 10s for herself, 5s per week for the second child, and 3s 6d per week for the second child. After the death of the little child in March last, it was right that he (Dr Wynne) should tell the magistrates that defendant wrote to some of the persons connected with the War Department, and pointed out that that child had died, and asked for some grant in connection with the death of the child. So far the defendant was perfectly in order, and there was nothing wrong in her conduct. Her letter, however, apparently did not reach the authorities who were dealing with the pension-it was over-loaded, but on the 31st May she was granted a pension at the rate of 18s 6d per week for herself and her two children, and if the two children were alive, whereas one child had died, and defendant was only entitled to a pension of 15s per week instead of a pension of 18s 6d per week. Defendant then perpetrated what was undoubtedly a bad fraud. She went before Mr Egan, J. P., and must have taken to Mr Egan another child to represent her dead child, because on the 31st May she made her mark to a declaration in Mr Egan’s presence declaring that her two children, Mary Esther and Ellen, were both alive and living with her, whereas Mary Esther had been dead since March. She must havce taken another child to Mr Egan, who certified that “Mary Esther Walsh, aged 12 months, daughter of Mrs Elizabeth Walsh, 5 Bleasby Street, is living, and has been seen by me to-day. ” That declaration and certificate was signed by defendant and Mr Egan, and on the faith of it defendant, from the 31st May to the 4th August, received a pension at the rate of 18s 6d, per week, whereas she was only entitled to a pension at a rate of 15s per week. On the 4th August it became necessary for the defendant to make a new declaration, and she filled in a new declaration, and again, went before Mr Egan, and the same thing must have happened, because the declaration of the 4th August was again signed by Mr Egan, and in it defendant declared that Ellen Walsh, and Mary Walsh-the dead child-were both living, and living with her, and Mr Egan gave the life certificate that the two children purporting to be those two children were produced before him. It was time, in the public interest, that such a class of fraud should be put a stop to. Elsewhere very heavy penalties had been imposed on parties guilty of such frauds, with the object of putting a stop to such frauds. In the present case he (Dr Wynne) was extremely sorry for the defendant, because she had sustained a grievous loss by the death of her husband, and also by the death of her child under such very sad circumstances. The prosecution was brought under the 47th and 48th Victoris, chapter 55, section 3, and a defendant was liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, and no conviction in a court of summary jurisdiction to imprisonment for a period of three months, or a fine not exceeding £25. The Legislature looked upon the offence as a serious offence. He was bound to press the case in the interests of the public, but whatever the magistrates did, if they considered there were any mitigating circumstances, he would ask them to say, for the sake of example, if any further cases should arise, that they would be rigidly dealt with by the court. He understood that defendant would admit the offence, and in doing so she would make amends for her conduct. Defendant said that she admitted the charge. Dr Wynne said that he understood that since the 1st September the pension had been suspended. Mr O’Brien-What is the amount she drew over and above the amount she would be entitled to? Dr Wynne said that it would be at the rate of 3s 6d per week from the 31st May to the 31st August. In reply to the magistrates, Sergeant Smith (record-keeper) said there was no previous convictions against the defendant. Dr Wynne-I have made inquiries, and I have found that up to this the woman has borne a very good character. Mr M Egan, J. P., who did not adjudicate in the case, said that when defendant came to him she was after writing to the war Office and intimating the death of her child. He was not aware of that fact, but he should say that the woman, considering that the War Office took no action in erasing the name of the dead child, was under the impression that she could still draw the money. He took it that a woman in her position would rather be under that impression, and he was sure that a woman of more intelligence would be under a similar impression. He did not think that the woman had any intention of fraudulently deceiving the authorities-that was his candid opinion from what he knew of the woman and her surroundings. Dr Wynne-I am sorry you have said that, as it forces me to say that this woman must have deliberately committed a fraud by getting another child for the dead child, and taking that child before you as the child that was, as a matter of fact, dead at the time. Mr Egan-As a matter of fact, she had only one child with her when I signed the form. Dr Wynne-Your own certificate is that you saw two children. Mr Egan-I did not see tow. She had only one, and she told me that the other child was all right. Mr Starkie said that that was a very important matter. Only for the alleged presentation of the two children he would have been disposed to take an extremely lenient view of the case: but if the defendant had produced a child that did not belong to her, it would have added to the gravity of her offence and have justified the magistrates in taking serious notice of the case. Mr Egan, however, put a different complexion on that aspect of the case. Dr Wynne-Mr Egan’s certificate is in his own writing, and is as follows: “I certify that Ellen Walsh and Mary Walsh, children of Mrs Elizabeth Walsh, is living and has been seen by me to-day. -Michael Egan, J. P. ” Mr Starkie said that it would be desirable to hear Mr Egan’s evidence. Mr O’Brien-Is it absolutely essential that the children should have been presented at the time to whoever fills in the certificate? Dr Wynne said that that was most essential. Mr Egan was then sworn, and then stated that he could not add anything to what he had already said. Mr Starkie said that the important fact in the case was that the woman alleged she had two children, and-Mr Egan-No, sir, She had only one child and told me the other was all right. I did not see two children with her, and I did not think it was necessary that I should see the children. Dr Wynne-The two names have been filled in by Mr Egan as having been seen by him. Mr Egan-That is right, but I did not think it was necessary to see the children. Mr Starkie read the certificate in question and Dr Wynne said that the certificate for Mary Esther, aged 12 months, was signed by Mr Egan, who certified that the children were living, and had been seen by him on the date of the certificate. That was the dead child. The statement of Mr Egan took him (Dr Wynne) completely by surprise, because magistrates who were doing such a thing were exercising a very important public duty, and were bound not to sign a certificate in respect of any children except such children were produced to him, and that was very important, because it was on the magistrates declaration that the children were produced to him that the pension was given. The facts that had now been disclosed made the case more serious than it appeared at the start. Mr Egan-I am living in a district where my house is bombarded by this sort of thing. Mr O’Brien asked what effect would the present prosecution would have on the defendants future pension. Dr Wynne said that so far as he knew the prosecution would have nothing to do with it. Mr Starkie said the letter the defendant wrote to the War Office was as follows: “5 Bleasby Street (off Griffin Street) Cork-Sir-I received a sum of £2 13s 10d due on the settlement of the account of the late No 7114 Private Cornelius Walsh, of the 2nd Leinster Regiment. Sir, I am after burying one of my children-she met with an accident. I have been told that I would get some money towards burial. I do not know where to apply for it. Would you kindly let me know? The money I received from you I spent it on nourishment on the child. I would be very thankful to know if there is money to be got for the burial, and where to apply for it. I remain, sir, Mrs E Walsh. ” Mr O’Brien-After she wrote that letter did they know they gave her a pension? Dr Wynne said that at the time she was in receipt of separation allowance, and not a pension. When the separation allowance stopped she got a pension. Defendant said that her separation allowance was £1 a week. Mr Starkie-What evidently happened was this letter went to the War Office and did not reach the Paymaster’s department or else it wound have been dealt with. Dr Wynne said that the case would be a simple one only for the substitution of the child, and that must have happened, because they had a certificate in Mr Egan’s own hand-writing about it. Mr Starkey said that he would like to know if Mr Egan saw the child in question in the woman’s arms. Mr Egan-No, Mr Starkie. She only had one child in her arms, and that child was about three or four years old. Dr Wynne-And it is put down as being twelve months. Mr Egan-I did not see that child, but she told me that it was all right. Mr Starkie asked how was it discovered that the woman was drawing the allowance had not had two children. Dr Wynne said that he thought the first thing that led to the inquiry being made was the form of the certificate. Mr Starkie-It is worded in the singular number, and refers to two children. Mr Egan-Five months after they wrote for the name of the dead child, and they must have then discovered the woman’s letter in the War Office. Dr Wynne said that he was told that the defendant was wretchedly poor woman. Mr Starkie-From Mr Egan’s evidence it is clear this woman did not bring a child to represent the dead child at the time that he was signing the declaration and the certificate. As far as the defendant is concerned, that completely alters her status in the matter. The magistrates, in view of the fact that the defendant wrote to the War Office disclosing the fact that her child was dead, and also to the fact that she did not bring a child to Mr Egan to represent the dead child, are going to discharge her under the Probation of Offenders Act. If it were proved the woman brought another child to Mr Egan, the magistrates would be compelled to impose a sentence of imprisonment, because that would be a gross fraud on the public, and the magistrates wish it to be clearly understood that if any of these cases are brought before them in the future and strong cases made out they will have no hesitation in imposing a deterrent penalty either by fine or by imprisonment. We discharge this woman now.

Grave/Memorial: Panel 10.

Cemetery: Ploegsteert Memorial in Belgium. Also listed on the Great War Memorial, South Mall, Cork City.

[KGB]

On 01/07/2019 at 13:50, museumtom said:

No Corisande, it has nothing to do with an United Ireland, the reason I did not include the 6 counties was It was too far away and I would have to visit each county library to delve into their files, I run on a zero budget. I don't get support from anyone, and have been unemployed for the past ten years after the bust. I never asked for money just support. Those in the powers that be have been ignoring my pleas for 18 years and I am nearly 70. The 26 counties was just about doable within my lifetime but including the 6 counties would have knobbled me time wise, and nothing would have been completed. With support the 32 counties would have been finished 8 years ago, mores the pity.

There is always money to send some plump wee gangster to France, Belgium or Turkey or a binge when the TV cameras roll. Run for D.E. 

[Ilbury Welsh]

Thank you Tom. I shall sort out a copy shortly. John

[UncleBourbon]

Amazing work Tom. Very impressive.

I'll be sure to buy a Volume when able. I'm most interested in Volume 8 for the McGrath surname as I've been trying to learn more about a US Korean war vet named Donald M. McGrath who was shot by police in Grand Forks, North Dakota in 1980. I know it's entirely unrelated, but the surname/Volume catches my attention because of it!

Edited 9 October , 2019 by UncleBourbon