Connaught Ranger obituary

[jollgo]

Does anyone know which  local  newspapers if any may  have had an obituary for my great uncle Joseph Grady  5th Connaught Rangers KIA Kosturino 7/12/1915. His family home was in Boyle, County Roscommon but I believe he moved to Galway/Renmore to enlist..Bit of a long shot as these newspapers may not even keep archives from back then. Any information or tips would be very welcome. Regards John.  

[RogerWill]

Have a look in the Irish News Archive: https://www.irishnewsarchive.com/

The regimental journal might have a mention too.

Good luck,

Roger

[museumtom]

Grady    Joseph    Lance Sergeant    Connaught Rangers    Boyle, County Roscommon    07/12/1915    Killed in action in Salonika    Doiran Memorial, Greece.
Serial No: 3423
Unit: D Company, 5th Battalion
Age: 22
Born: Boyle, County Roscommon
Enlisted: Oranmore, County Galway
Next of Kin: Son of Joseph and Anne Grady, of Church St., Boyle, Co. Roscommon.

[FROGSMILE]

3 hours ago, museumtom said:

Grady    Joseph    Lance Sergeant    Connaught Rangers    Boyle, County Roscommon    07/12/1915    Killed in action in Salonika    Doiran Memorial, Greece.
Serial No: 3423
Unit: D Company, 5th Battalion
Age: 22
Born: Boyle, County Roscommon
Enlisted: Oranmore, County Galway
Next of Kin: Son of Joseph and Anne Grady, of Church St., Boyle, Co. Roscommon.

Interesting Tom. He must have been rated a good soldier to make Lance Sergeant at just 22-years old.  It’s not necessarily so, but I wonder if he had any previous Special Reserve ( ex Militia) service - they often enlisted very young.  His attestation document would have told us had it survived.

Edited 22 May , 2022 by FROGSMILE

[generalist]

Checked the British Newspaper Archives - there's a list of deaths from 10th Division in the Irish Independent 22/1/1916, which lists "Grady, 4/3423. Lance/Sgt. J." under 5th Connaught Rangers, but no actual obituary.

19 minutes ago, FROGSMILE said:

Interesting Tom. He must have been rated a good soldier to make Lance Sergeant at just 22-years old.  It’s not necessarily so, but I wonder if he had any previous Special Reserve ( ex Militia) service - they often enlisted very young.  His attestation document would have told us had it survived.

The 4/3423 looks like a 4th Battalion number, and his entries in the Registers of Soldiers Effects seem to concur on originally 4th (two entries - one says 4th, one 4th amended to 5th), but this list suggests that number would have been issued when he was still very young - perhaps fifteen or so. Not quite sure what is going on there!

[museumtom]

Ith a mythery Frogsmile.

[FROGSMILE]

1 hour ago, generalist said:

Checked the British Newspaper Archives - there's a list of deaths from 10th Division in the Irish Independent 22/1/1916, which lists "Grady, 4/3423. Lance/Sgt. J." under 5th Connaught Rangers, but no actual obituary.

The 4/3423 looks like a 4th Battalion number, and his entries in the Registers of Soldiers Effects seem to concur on originally 4th (two entries - one says 4th, one 4th amended to 5th), but this list suggests that number would have been issued when he was still very young - perhaps fifteen or so. Not quite sure what is going on there!

Well ostensibly that seems to fit.  3rd was the Special Reserve, but 4th was Extra Reserve, and an age of 15 coming into the equation isn’t impossible.  From the time it was created to replace the Militia, neither Special, nor Extra were ever up to established strength.  Underage enlistment was as a result endemic across Britain, but especially in Ireland, where gaining employment in a fickle agrarian economy was notoriously difficult.  There was nothing new about this and it had been exactly the same in the Militia.  If this is what occurred with Grady then it’s much less surprising that he was a Lance Sergeant (who remember carried out duty as a sergeant) at just 22.

Edited 22 May , 2022 by FROGSMILE

[Jervis]

7 hours ago, jollgo said:

His family home was in Boyle, County Roscommon but I believe he moved to Galway/Renmore to enlist..

Grady did not have to go to Galway to enlist. Boyle was a well known garrison town with a long history & connection to the 4th Connaught Rangers (formerly Roscommon militia). He could have enlisted directly in the Kings house Barracks in the town. 
 

Given the information that @FROGSMILE has provided, I would not be surprised if Grady came from a military family in the town. 
 

Jervis

[FROGSMILE]

It’s interesting that King’s House, in Boyle was not only the depot and headquarters of the Connaught Rangers but also that of the Roscommon Militia.  Looking at the insignia of the Roscommon Militia it’s easy to see where the 88th (and 94th) Connaught Rangers obtained their inspiration for new regimental insignia from. It was often the case that the lower precedence regiments (those with higher numbers like the Connaught’s) didn’t have much iconography and symbology on their insignia, being entirely content with their numbers, although they did generally have at least one badge on their regimental colours.  For the 88th it was the Egyptian Sphinx, and the 94th the Indian Elephant, with neither colours originally featuring a harp.  The Roscommon Militia favoured both the Irish harps, the ancient Celtic (Brian Boru) type, and the later female version incorporating the Maid of Erin, plus a liberal festooning of shamrock leaves.  When these regiments merged, in July 1881, all three (four if counting both harps) badges were incorporated in the new regiments iconography to feature on all its appointments.

NB.  Three other militia regiments also merged to form with the new Connaught Rangers, comprising an additional three auxiliary infantry battalions, two from Mayo and one from Galway, but apart from the common [to them all] harp and shamrock symbology, the Mayo insignia (a Phoenix and the Eagle of the Marquess of Sligo) were both disregarded, probably because one was styled as rifles, and the other as fusiliers, neither of which now sat comfortably**.

**also perhaps because a Marquessate was below par for incorporating in a regular regiments insignia.

Edited 23 May , 2022 by FROGSMILE

[Jervis]

Thanks for the information Frogsmile, very informative as always. 

[jollgo]

14 hours ago, Jervis said:

Grady did not have to go to Galway to enlist. Boyle was a well known garrison town with a long history & connection to the 4th Connaught Rangers (formerly Roscommon militia). He could have enlisted directly in the Kings house Barracks in the town. 
 

Given the information that @FROGSMILE has provided, I would not be surprised if Grady came from a military family in the town. 
 

Jervis

Hi Jervis. Yes it's interesting that he did apparently enlist in Oranmore when he could have enlisted in his home town of Boyle ( two of his brothers actually did enlist in Boyle)  Maybe he moved out of the family home where there were 11 of them in a 2 bed cottage and thought that enlisting in the army was a good option at that time and maybe moving to   Oranmore and being stationed at Renmore was what was on offer to him..

[jollgo]

Thank you to all of you that have replied to my post.