Clement Robertson – The First Tank VC

By Ian Robertson (Grand Nephew)

At the beginning of World War I tank warfare was not in the manuals of the day. To break the deadlock of trench warfare however, the belligerent nations began to develop armed armoured tracked vehicles. These were crude machines. By Autumn 1917, the tank had made its appearance on the battlefield. Clement Robertson, from Delgany in Wicklow, was one of the first to volunteer for the newly established Tank Regiment – and the first tank Victoria Cross recipient. Robertson Family

Captain Clement Robertson VC, circa 1916.
(Image from author’s collection)

Clement was born on 15 December, 1890, in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa as his father was serving there at the time. He had four brothers, three older and one younger. His great grandfather was William Robertson who married Margaret Jameson in 1801. She was the daughter of John Jameson the founder of the John Jameson and Sons Distillery and Margaret Haig (daughter of John Haig the original proprietor of John Haig and Sons). His father John Albert Robertson was born in 1851; he was in the Royal Artillery and served in South Africa. He retired after the Boer War and settled more permanently in Delgany in County Wicklow. The five sons were all involved in serving King and Country in one way or another. William Cairns Robertson (1882-1950) DSO Royal Artillery, Albert John Robertson (1884-1954) (My Grandfather) Royal Navy Rear Admiral and MVO, Sir Fredrick Robertson Kt Bach CSI CIE (1885-1964) was in the Indian Civil Service, Clement Robertson VC (1890-1917) KIA, and Charles Wyndham Robertson (1892- 1971) served with the Monmouthshire Regiment. Charles then joined the engineer firm John Jameson & Sons after the war.

William Cairns Robertson DSO, the eldest, became a Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Garrison Artillery like his father. He had joined at the end of the Boer War and served in the Great War. He was awarded the DSO in 1918 and was mentioned in Despatches. Albert John was my Grandfather. He chose the Royal Navy. He was born in 1884 and like his brothers was educated at Hill House, St. Leonards on Sea. He joined the HMS Britannia Royal Naval College in 1898 and went to sea as a midshipman in 1900. After his promotion to Lieutenant in 1905 he specialised in the navigation branch. Throughout the Great War he served with the Second Cruiser Squadron of the Grand Fleet. He was navigator on HMS Achilles and was there during the engagement with the sinking of the disguised German Auxiliary Cruiser Leopold in March 1917, in defence of the armed boarding steamer Dundee, which the Leopold had attacked.

Albert was mentioned in dispatches following this engagement and noted for early promotion as ‘an exceptionally skilful and cool navigation officer’. From June 1918, he served on the armoured cruiser HMS Minotaur. These ships operated in the North Atlantic protecting merchant shipping. HMS Minotaur was involved in the Battle of Jutland in 1916. These two ships were Warrior Class Armoured Cruisers. Albert was thrown into the freezing Atlantic Ocean on a couple of occasions and this affected his health in later life. After the war, he worked at the Portsmouth Navigation School and from 1922 until his promotion to Captain he was navigator on the Royal Yacht Victoria and Albert. He became Captain of Dockyard and Kings Harbourmaster at Portsmouth from 1931 to 1933 and became ADC to King George V. He retired on promotion to Flag Rank in 1936. He was also a member of the Royal Victorian Order.

Sir Fredrick, I don’t know that much about, except that he worked in the Indian Civil Service. He left Trinity College Dublin in 1908 with a BA. He was in the Indian Civil Service from 1909 to 1937. He had a number of different positions and clearly did well because he was knighted in 1945. He was awarded the Honour of ‘Companion of the Star of India’ in 1941, and the ‘Companion of the Indian Empire’ in 1935.

Charles Robertson, the youngest, studied engineering at Trinity College Dublin and hadn’t finished his degree when war broke out. He joined the Royal Monmouthshire Regiment and served during the war in Palestine and Egypt. The Monmouthshire Regiment were engineers and built bridges, roads and defence works. He was mentioned in Despatches. Following the war, he went to the Sudan on an irrigation project. His later life was spent as a director of John Jameson and Sons Distillery. His passion was golf and he won the Irish Close Championship in 1925 as a member of Delgany Golf Club.

‘Later that year at the end of September the push towards Passchendaele was in progress. By this time Clement had been promoted and was now Acting Captain and in command of a section consisting of five tanks.’

The five brothers were all fanatical golf players and were founder members of Delgany Golf Club. It is Fredrick whose name appears on the monument at the entrance to the Club as one of the founders in 1908. Clement won the Captain’s prize in 1908 and Charles won the Presidents Cup the following year.

Family photo taken at Struan Hill, Delgany, where they lived. Clement is on the back left, Fredrick beside him. Parents in the middle, seated, and Charles on ground in front, circa1904. (Image author’s collection)

Early Life

Although born in South Africa, Clements pent his childhood in Delgany. He went to Haileybury College in England and then to Trinity College Dublin to study Engineering. He graduated in 1909, and went to Egypt to work on the Nile Irrigation Project. With the outbreak of war, he returned to England and joined the 19th (Service) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers. He applied for a Commission in the 3rd Reserve Battalion, Queen’s Royal (West Surrey)Regiment and was successful. This was 1916 and, in an effort, to break the stalemate of trench warfare on the Western Front they were secretly developing and testing a large, armoured, mobile vehicle with cannon and machine guns. This machine, they hoped, could travel through no-man’s land, crushing the barbed wire defences, cross the enemy trenches and fire sideways down the length of the trenches. The Heavy Machine Gun Corps was being formed. This would later become the Tank Corps and later styled the Royal Tank Regiment.

Clement volunteered, and with his engineering background, was accepted as one of the first officers appointed. He went to Belgium in January 1917 as a Tank Commander. He was in action in early June 1917, in the assault and taking of the Messines Ridge. His tank was part of X Corps and in support of units of the London Regiment of 140th (4th London) Brigade, part of 41st Division. I have walked the route he took that morning from Arundel House towards his objective at White Chateau Stables and on to Opal Reserve and have seen where his tank was hit by a 5.9- inch artillery shell. The left Sponson was badly damaged. Three of his crew were hit; Sergeant William Clegg was killed and two others were badly wounded. I have visited the grave of Sergeant Clegg in the Dikkebusch New Military Cemetery; killed in action 7 June, 1917, aged 32, from Burnley in Lancashire. The tank could not precede and had to limp back to base.

Passchendaele

Later that year at the end of Septemberthe push towards Passchendaele was inprogress. By this time Clement had beenpromoted and was now Acting Captain andin command of a section consisting of fivetanks. On October 4th, he was to take histanks into action at a small village calledReutel, a few miles east of Ypres, in supportof the infantry. The front line was on thesoutheast corner of Polygon Wood. Thetanks had to be brought safely in darknessand under heavy shellfire to that point first.

For three nights prior to this, Clement and Gunner Cyril Allen worked, without sleep, to reconnoitre and tape a safe route for the tanks to take. This was the Third Battle of Ypres and by now the ground was a bare sea of mud and craters. You will have seen the photographs showing just stumps where trees once grew, mud so deep that a man could drown in it. The hard ground of the damaged road was the only way. Eventually on 4 October, they were to move up to the start line. They crawled from Sterling Castle, through Black Watch Corner and along the south side of Polygon Wood. Constantly under shellfire and with the weather deteriorating, Clement and his assistant were not happy that they could follow the tapes safely from inside the tanks. They therefore got out of the tanks and Clement and Cyril Allen guided the tanks on foot. They reached the start point at 3am and rested for a few hours and at dawn they moved off. Clement knew that there was still a real danger of the tanks missing their way. So, with great determination he continued to lead them on foot. The small bridge over the Reutelbeek miraculously was still intact. It was the only way to cross the marshy ground to their objectives on the other side of the small valley. Captain Robertson was certain that if the tanks failed to see the bridge and follow the hard ground to it then action would be lost.

Image from the Illustrated War News report on Clement’s action.

‘The gunfire was intense by now and was concentrated on the leading tanks. The commander of the first tank was amazed to see Clement still untouched‘

The German barrage came down furiously, rifles cracked, machine guns spluttered, but the two lone figures went ever forward. They were well ahead of the infantry now, the only two living creatures to be seen. Bullets whistled by them, flattening with a dull sound against the thick hides of the following tanks, shell bursts flung showers of mud over them, but they walked on, unhurt and undeterred. At last they came to the bridge. Gunner Allen went back to guide the rear tanks and Clement guided the leading tank over and then the others one by one. The gunfire was intense by now and was concentrated on the leading tanks. The commander of the first tank was amazed to see Clement still untouched. The tanks were now safe to continue to their respective objectives and when Gunner Allen reached the bridge, he could not see his Captain. The fire was so intense that, in his own words he ‘had to crawl on my hands and knees’ eventually finding his brave Captain in a shell hole, shot in the head. Gunner Allen took maps and documents from Clement’s body and finally took shelter in one of the last tanks. Clement was 26 years old. The Tank Section went forward and successfully drove the enemy from their strong points.

For his actions on 4 October, Clement was awarded the Victoria Cross (VC) and his medal was presented to his mother by Brigadier General C. Williams CB, Commanding Dublin District at the Royal Barracks in Dublin. It is sad that she did not feel up to the journey to London to have it presented by the King, as would be customary.

Acting Captain, The Queen’s Royal West Surrey Regiment, attached to A Battalion, Tank Corps

The citation reads:

On 4 October 1917 at Zonnebeke, Belgium, Captain Robertson led his tanks in attack under heavy shell, machine-gun and rifle fire over ground which had been ploughed by shell-fire. He and his batman had spent the previous three days and nights going back and forth over the ground, reconnoitering and taping routes, and, knowing the risk of the tanks missing the way, he now led them on foot, guiding them carefully towards their objective, although he must have known that this action would almost certainly cost him his life. He was killed after the objective had been reached, but his skilful leading had already ensured success.

Gunner Allen was awarded the DCM (Distinguished Conduct Medal) for his splendid devotion to duty. It was unfortunately not long before death claimed him also. He was killed some seven weeks later in Cambrai where the tanks were next to go into action. His body was not found and his name appears in the Louvreval Memorial. Killed in action on 20 November, 1917. He wrote a letter to my Grandmother outlining the events leading up to Clement’s death. It is a moving a poignant letter, beautifully written in pencil and using wonderful English. The sadness is in the fact that he never got a chance to send this letter to my Grandmother. It only appeared a few years ago when a relation was looking through some of Cyril’s effects that had survived and been kept in an attic for 90 years.

Clement Robertson is commemorated on a plaque in Delgany Parish Church and on the Memorial in Trinity College Dublin. He is buried in Oxford Road Cemetery in Belgium near where he fell.

On 4 October 2017, the friends of the Tank Memorial Ypres Salient organised a special centenary remembrance ceremony dedicated to Captain Clement Robertson VC of the Royal Tank Corps. At this occasion the bridge at the Reutelbeek was officially named ‘Robertson’s Bridge’.

This article first appeared in the Victoria Cross Journal in March 2014. Ian Robertson, Clément’s nephew, served with the Irish Guards and today is Chairman of the Irish Guards Association in the Rep. of Ireland.

March 18, 2021March 18, 2021

Irish Volunteer, Dublin Fusilier, Patriot – Lieutenant Tom Kettle

By Brendan O’Shea

Lieutenant Tom Kettle, 9th Battalion, Royal Dublin Fusiliers, was killed in action on 9 September 1916, near the village of Ginchy in Northern France at about five o’clock in the afternoon of the 71st day of the Battle of the Somme. Initially buried on the battlefield by members of the Welsh Guards, the location of his grave was subsequently lost and his remains were never found thereafter. Today his name is inscribed on the Thiepval Memorial near the town of Albert together with those of 72,000 others who lost their lives on the Somme, and equally have no known grave. 100 years later, a constant stream of people from all over the world visit Thiepval every day to pay their respects to the fallen. Some remember Tom Kettle, but most never heard of him, notwithstanding the inclusion of his name on a stone tablet in the Island of Ireland Peace Park at Messines, Belgium when it was opened in 1998. And unfortunately, this also remains true in 21st century Ireland.

The only pubic memorial in Ireland to Tom Kettle can be found in Dublin’s St. Stephen’s Green directly across from the Shelbourne Hotel. Never unveiled properly, and following several objections by the Commissioner of Public Works to the inscription, in 1927 a bust of Kettle was eventually placed where it stands today without any reference to the facts that he was an Irish Volunteer, an officer in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers or that he died during the Battle of the Somme. It is hardly any wonder then that nobody gives this memorial a second glance as the citizens of Dublin go about their daily business but on the 100th anniversary of his death it is also nothing short of a national disgrace that nobody stops, nobody looks and nobody cares. Of course there are reasons for this not least amongst which is the manner in which history has been taught to successive generations prioritising one historical narrative over another and thereby effectively reducing the contribution of Kettle and others like him to the status of an historical footnote. This is deplorable and ignores the fact that Tom Kettle was a truly great Irishman of whom we should all be immensely proud.

Thomas Michael Kettle was born in Artane, Dublin on 9 February 1880. The seventh of twelve children, in his formative years he was influenced significantly by the Home Rule politics of his father Andrew who was a leading Catholic Nationalist politician, and together with Michael Davitt a founding member of the Irish Land League.

Educated initially by the Christian Brothers at O’Connell School, Richmond Street, Dublin he proved to be an excellent student. In 1894 he moved on to Clongowes Wood College in Co. Kildare where it was immediately obvious that the young Kettle possessed more than just an average intellect. Three years later he enrolled at University College Dublin, where in 1898, he was elected auditor of the Literary and Historical Society and became vocal on the legitimacy of the Boer War in South Africa, before obtaining a Bachelor in Arts Degree in 1902. Thereafter he was admitted to the Irish Bar and qualified as a Barrister in 1905.

Throughout this period, he also indulged in political journalism and was a determined supporter of John Redmond and the Irish Parliamentary Party. He became president of the Young Ireland Branch of the United Irish League in 1904. In 1906, a vacancy arose in East Tyrone after the death of the sitting MP, Patrick Doogan. Not surprising Tom Kettle was offered and accepted the chance to stand for election to Parliament. In the by-election which followed he won the seat by 18 votes, thus becoming the youngest member of the Party and was immediately viewed by many colleagues as a future leader. In this regard his vision of where Ireland should stand in the world was critical and a fundamental component of his entire political philosophy. Together with Willie Redmond he passionately believed that an emerging independent Ireland must exist within a wider political context. For Redmond that context was colonial in a shared political jurisdiction with Canada, Australia and New Zealand. For Kettle it was Europe. In his article ‘Ireland’ he wrote: ‘My only programme for Ireland consists in equal parts of Home Rule and the Ten Commandments. My only counsel to Ireland is, that to become deeply Irish, she must become European’. Tom Kettle could see the big picture and that is precisely what set him apart from the majority of his peers.

By 1908, and still only twenty-eight years of age, he had become the new Professor of National Economics at University College Dublin, while simultaneously continuing his work as an MP. However, the burden became too great given the fragile nature of his health and prior to the general election of December 1910 he stood down and did not contest the seat. Nonetheless he retained his political connections and remained an active supporter of John Redmond welcoming the 3rd Home Rule Bill in 1912, and believing that Unionist fears could be overcome in due course.

‘So here, while the mad guns curse overhead, And tired men sigh, with mud for couch and floor, Know that we fools, now with the foolish dead, Died not for flag, nor King, nor Emperor, But for a dream, born in a herdsman’s shed, And for the secret Scripture of the poor’.
However other social and political factors were now also at play in Ireland and in 1913 Dublin became embroiled in a workers strike and subsequent lockout by management. Unlike many in the political establishment Kettle supported the locked out workers and wrote numerous articles describing the appalling poverty in which thousands of working class people were forced to live before intervening directly himself through the establishment of a peace committee in order to find a resolution.

1913 also saw the formation of the Irish Volunteers in Dublin’s Rotunda Rink on November 25th, and together with his brother Laurence, he immediately enrolled subscribing to the Volunteer Manifesto, which envisaged holding Ireland for the Empire and resisting the separatist intentions of the Ulster Volunteers formed the previous year.

Thereafter he was tasked by the Volunteer leadership with obtaining arms on the open market. In August 1914 he found himself in Belgium where he personally witnessed both the ferocity of the German invasion and the corresponding inability of the Belgian military to resist. Writing for the Daily News at this time he was unequivocal in his thoughts… ‘It is impossible not to be with Belgium in this struggle. It is impossible any longer to be passive. Germany has thrown down a well-considered challenge to all the deepest forces of our civilization. War is hell, but it is only a hell of suffering, not a hell of dishonour. And through it, over its flaming coals, Justice must walk, were it on bare feet’.

For Kettle the die was now cast and his continuing experiences in France and Belgium during September, particularly in relation to the plight of the civilian population, served only to confirm his view that this was a war of civilization against barbarians. He was also clear that Ireland had obligations to support Belgium in her hour of need… ‘In such a conflict to counsel Ireland to stand neutral in judgment, is as if one were to counsel a Christian to stand neutral in judgment between Nero and St. Peter. To counsel her to stand neutral in action would be to abandon all her old valour and decision, and to establish in their places the new cardinal virtues of comfort and cowardice. In such matters you cannot compromise. Neutrality is already a decision, a decision of adherence to the evil side’.

Not surprisingly then when Kettle returned to Ireland he had little difficulty subscribing to John Redmond’s belief that Ireland should play its part in the war effort notwithstanding that Home Rule had been suspended until hostilities ceased. True to his convictions he quickly applied for a commission but was turned down because of his fragile health. However, he persisted, and eventually obtained the rank of Lieutenant, albeit that he was confined exclusively to a recruiting role. Undeterred, he continued to apply for active service and with his health improving marginally, and a chronic need for replacement officers on the Western Front, in 1916 he received an appointment in the 9th Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers and deployed to France.

However, within a short time his health deteriorated again and at Easter he found himself at home in Dublin on sick leave. As his former colleagues in the Irish Volunteers launched their ill-conceived insurrection, Kettle watched in fury believing that his dream of a free Ireland in a free Europe had been terminally damaged. That said he was also distraught at the manner in which the leaders were subsequently dealt with and he could not be consoled when his colleague at UCD, Thomas MacDonagh, was executed. Nevertheless, when his time came to return to the front Kettle understood what his duty required of him and on 14 July, he set sail once again for France. He was 36 years old and had a mere 58 days left to live.

Readjusting to life in the trenches Kettle did not find life easy. ‘Physically I am having a heavy time,’ he wrote, ‘I am doing my best but I see better men than me dropping out day by day and wonder if I shall ever come home… the heat is bad as are the insects and rats, but the moral strain is positively terrible’. Nevertheless, he carried on bravely and his leadership was very effective in the series of successful attacks on Guillemont, which began on 3 September.
But the village of Ginchy still remained to be taken and writing to his brother the night before the main attack we get a very clear insight into his frame of mind. ‘I am calm and happy but desperately anxious to live. …the big guns are coughing and smacking their shells, which sound for all the world like overhead express trains at anything from 10 to 100 per minute on this sector; the men are grubbing and an odd one writing home. Somewhere the Choosers of the Slain are touching, as in our Norse story they used to touch, with invisible wands those who are to die’.

Tom Kettle did not want to die. He simply wanted to do his duty, survive the war, and go home. His numerous writings which survived him make this abundantly clear and any suggestions to the contrary are completely without foundation. However, the following afternoon, at about 5 o’clock, having made his way thought the stench of the dead in the forward trenches and progressed to within touching distance of his objective, which was the destroyed village of Ginchy. The Choosers of the Slain chose Tom Kettle notwithstanding that he had tried to outwit them by wearing a somewhat primitive bulletproof vest. Kettle was gone and Ireland had lost one of her most loyal and faithful servants.

In the intervening years Tom Kettle has often been criticised for supporting the war and serving in the British Army. Some commentators have even dared to suggest that if he wished to make a personal sacrifice in 1916, he should more properly have done so in the General Post Office with his former Irish Volunteer colleagues now turned insurrectionists. In fact, Kettle was acutely aware that this criticism would be made but firmly believed that: ‘the faults of a period or a man should not prevail against the cause of liberty’.

Writing a sonnet to his daughter Betty (his gift from God) on 4 September, just before the attack on Guillemont, Tom Kettle railed at the madness of his predicament and spelt out in detail why he had put country before family….

So here, while the mad guns curse overhead, And tired men sigh, with mud for couch and floor, Know that we fools, now with the foolish dead, Died not for flag, nor King, nor Emperor, But for a dream, born in a herdsman’s shed, And for the secret Scripture of the poor’.

In recent times lesser poets and lesser people have seen fit to criticize this incredible poem without having made the slightest effort to understand the physical and psychological contexts within which it was written. This is Kettle’s epitaph crafted in a world of unimaginable horror with nothing save the stench of death for company and the cold sweat of fear soaking into every fibre of his body. Kettle’s dream was of a free, united and independent Ireland in a free Europe – of that there is no doubt whatsoever – and the secret scripture of the poor is what is always is – liberty, equality, and fraternity – or in modern parlance, Human Rights.

On 1 July 2016, I went to Thiepval to remember all Irishmen who died there 100 years ago. I took with me the first edition (1917) of The Ways of War by Lieutenant Tom Kettle, 9th Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers which once upon a time was owned and treasured by Private Maurice Donovan, 1st Battalion The Durham Light Infantry. The very last words on the very last page have turned out to be quite prophetic:

‘History will write of us that we began nobly, but that our purpose corrupted. The Great War for freedom will not, indeed, have been waged in vain; that is already decided: but it will have but half kept its promises. Blood and iron will have been once more established as the veritable masters of men, and nothing will open before the world save a vista of new wars’.

Lieutenant Tom Kettle, Irish Volunteer and Dublin Fusilier, died courageously leading his men on 9 September 1916. He was, however, so much more than just another soldier who simply did his duty. He was desperately anxious to live and undoubtedly would have played a leading role in the development and evolution of our nation had he been spared. Alas, it was not to be – such are the Ways of War – and our Nation has long been the poorer as a consequence.

Bust of Thomas Kettle in St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin. (Photograph by Brendan O’Shea)

Brendan O’Shea is a retired member of the Irish Defence Forces and holds a PhD in History. He is the author of numerous books. In 2010, along with Gerry White, he edited, A Great Sacrifice – Cork Servicemen who died in the Great War.

Sources for this article include: Tom Burke, In Memory of Tom Kettle Journal of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers Association Vol. 9 Sept 2002; Tom & Mary Kettle, The Ways of War, Talbot Press, 1917; Desmond and Jean Bowen, Heroic Option, Pen& Sword, 2005; Gerry White & Brendan O’Shea, Baptised in Blood, Mercier Press, 2005.

March 18, 2021

Educated for War – The Story of Fingal’s Hely-Hutchinson Brothers

By Colm McQuinn, Fingal County Council

In November 2011, Fingal County Council Archives received a donation of the papers of the Hely-Hutchinson family, originally of Swords. A branch of the Earls of Donoughmore of Knocklofty and later Palmerstown, they owned two big houses and estates in the Swords area, Seafield and Lissenhall. John Hely-Hutchinson, Deputy Lieutenant, Justice of the Peace, and County Sheriff for Dublin had two sons, Coote Robert and Richard George ‘Dick’, as well as three daughters. Both brothers were sent to boarding schools in England, including Harrow, which operated as feeder school for the British Military Academies. Both brothers served with distinction with the Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) before and during the First World War. Through correspondence, official documents and photographs, their story can be extracted to illustrate how different they were from the many Irish Catholics who joined the British Army at this time, and how they had been prepared for life to someday serve as army officers.

The early years and the Royal Fusiliers

The Hely-Hutchinson brothers Coote and Dick were born in 1870 and 1871 respectively, into a privileged Irish family which had a long, distinguished military history. Their grandfather, Coote, had been a Captain in the Royal Navy, and it was he who brought the family to Swords, having inherited Lissenhall House and Demesne through marriage. His son Francis, the boys’ uncle, followed in his father’s footsteps and joined the Royal Navy. Through marriage the family were related to many officers in the British Armed Forces.

While their father, John, may not have been a member of the armed forces, he was an enthusiastic huntsman, on foot and on horseback, as well as fishing. John was a keen shot and was an advocate of teaching boys to shoot from an early age. Among his papers is a collection of correspondence with a number of hunting gun manufacturers and hunting magazines in England, wherein he discusses the finer points of various aspects of the sport.

The two boys were sent to boarding school during the 1880’s. We can only assume that it was for financial reasons that only the eldest son, Coote, was sent to his father’s alma mater, Harrow. Dick was sent to a newly-opened school in Clifton, Bristol. Dick excelled at sports while in Clifton and represented the school at boxing. He went on to Sandhurst, but not as a cadet. It is likely that his elder brother Coote, graduated from Harrow into the Royal Fusiliers. Interestingly, there are Certificates in Musketry for both men from the School of Musketry in Hythe. They would have had no idea how significant this would be for them in the second decade of the next century. Dick qualified as a gymnasium and fencing instructor, while Coote became an instructor in Musketry.

Coote mounted on a white horse, at a ceremony in the Phoenix Park, Dublin 1897, with the caption “H.R.H. the Duchess of York presenting New Colours to the Royal Fusiliers, August 1897”.

Unfortunately, Coote was not as prolific a letter-writer as his younger brother, so we know little of his career and postings within the Royal Fusiliers. We know however that he spent most of his time with the 7th (Extra) Reserve Battalion as an instructor. A photograph, dated 1897, places Coote at a regimental colour ceremony at the Phoenix Park, Dublin.

Royal Fusiliers Officers, Moore Park, Fermoy, 1913.

From Dick’s writings we can trace his entire career. He was gazetted to the 2nd Battalion Royal Fusiliers as a 2nd Lieutenant on 13 May 1891. he was in Portobello Barracks and the Curragh as Superintendent of Gymnasia, Dublin District until 1902. He spent the turn of the century in Aldershot as an instructor in fencing and gymnastics and was able to come home to Dublin on leave. In 1899 he got married, and his wife, Alice Cunningham of Belfast, travelled with him to India, where he held posts in Darjeeling and Bangalore, and attended hunting and gymkhana in Secunderabad, Decca, Hyderabad and Ootacamund. He was promoted to Major in 1907 and was in Malta in 1908. He was Superintendent of Gymnasia, Northern Command 1908-1911. In 1912, back in Ireland, he was posted with the 1st Battalion to the Curragh. Prior to the outbreak of war August 1914, his unit moved to Kinsale, County Cork.

Royal Fusiliers at Kinsale Barracks, County Cork c1912.

Outbreak of War and Ypres

The 1st Battalion, Royal Fusiliers formed part of the British Expeditionary Force, 17th Brigade, 6th Division. Dick left his wife, Alice, and their infant daughter Pamela in Dublin in the care of his family.

He wrote to his mother from Kinsale before leaving for Le Havre:

‘Dearest Mother,

Just a line to you all to say goodbye….. keep your spirits up. I hope Kaiser Bill will take it in the neck before this war is finished.

Your loving son,

Dick’

A month later on 3 October, he wrote about his experiences at Ypres:

‘My dearest Mother,

Many thanks for your last letter, we are having a bit of an easy, after ten days in the trenches at the front, it came very welcome as it is hard work & nobody gets very much sleep & there was a lot of digging & tin cutting to do…. the luxury of a bed now is beyond words; also having a real wash with hot water was nice…

There are no fences, great big bare plateaus, with very deep valleys & thick woods, ideal places for artillery fighting, as they get very long ranges & good concealment, both sides use aeroplanes for fire detection. The German spy system is marvellous; as they retreat they leave them behind to mark for their artillery. Two were caught near our position, concealed in a hay stack, with a telephone & enough food for six weeks. We caught one near here with a pair of glasses observing artillery fire.

I expect he will be shot… We have had very little rain lately; the mud in these parts when it does rain is something colossal’.

Writing to Alice on 8 November, he describes how so many officers and men get wounded:

‘…a Welch Fusilier was trying to get back to his trenches, with some tea, when he was hit by a sniper. The artillery observing officer saw him & went out to try & get him in. He was hit, & then two of our men went to try to get him in & they were hit too all badly, & the cause of all the trouble was only very lightly hit, & could have remained out quite well where he was till it was dark. There are an awful lot of officers & men wounded like that…

These new sharp nosed bullets make worse wounds than the old ones, as when they meet a bone they turn over, which of course is very bad for the bone’

A Regimental History of the Royal Fusiliers, by H.C. O’Neill, describes the situation in November at Ypres:

‘It was now freezing hard, and the men’s feet were beginning to suffer. At night on the 21st, Major Hely-Hutchinson arrived to take over command, with Captains Lee, Pipon and Magnay from the 1st Battalion. A draft of 300 special reservists arrived, and companies reorganised and given some training. But on the 27th, the battalion had to take over the trenches at Kemmel from the Norfolks. It was the last test to apply men so little accustomed to warfare; but the days were critical and such risks had to be taken. Major Hely-Hutchinson had to deal with some serious cases of nerves, but under his firm hand the unit settled down, and spent three days in the trenches’.

There is a letter in the collection to Alice Hely-Hutchinson from Captain Philip Magnay dated 1 December, which he wrote while on leave from the 4th Battalion in London for four days. He says her husband, ‘is well & of course delighted at commanding. I came in with him from the 1st Bn & I can safely say that he is better both in health & spirits than ever before in the war….I heard quietly from some of the NCO’s & men that they like the idea of Major Hely-Hutchinson commanding which means that they think him a worthy successor to Colonel McMahon. If you knew how they idolised Colonel McMahon you would know that this is praise indeed for your husband’.

Dick was promoted to Commanding Officer. He wrote to his mother again, in December:

‘We are just back from a short spell in the dirty old ditches & they were very dirty ones this time…Our company was practically wet the whole time. I know when I went round I was wet up to the knees, however they came through alright, & we had very small losses, which pleased me very much, as it was my first effort as a C.O. under fire. We got shelled a bit one day but fortunately no damage was done…..

The men get any amount of tobacco & cigarettes & woolleys now, people at home are very good about sending them out things & the authorities are also doing them very well in the way of clothes & equipment, even supplying them with goatskin fur coats, which are rather a white elephant, as it is quite impossible for a man to carry all the kit he has to, & when he gets it all on, he can’t fight in it…

The mud on the roads is beyond all words, most of these Belgian roads are paved in the middle & each side is mud about 2 feet deep in some places. Some of the heavy motors have great difficulty in keeping on the roads at all’.

In a letter to his father in December 1914, and did not hold back on any details:

‘My dear Father,

Many congratulations on your 78th Birthday, I had no idea you were that old, it is quite wonderful, & I hope I come home from this beastly country in time for your next birthday. We spend so many days wading in mud up to our waists & then so many days getting dry again. You would not believe the state of the trenches it worse than any mud you can imagine. We came out the night before last, & the men are not dry yet. It is beastly country as there doesn’t seem to be any stones, the roads go to nothing & the ditches have no bottoms whatsoever, whole boxes of ammunition disappear in to the mud & are lost. Our trenches are about 150 to 200 yds from the Germans & one place this was only 15 yds… They were so close we were throwing hand grenades at each other. The Germans snipe all day & all night & we have shots then whenever we can see them’.

The Western Front

Fighting resumed in Belgium in early 1915. In a letter to his sister on 29 January, he wrote:

‘My dearest Cissy, We came out of the trenches last night, we had rather more killed and wounded than usual, as we were in bad trenches, & bullets were very plentiful, especially at night. A shell came into one of the fire trenches the other day & wet into a dug out & blew one of the servants out right over the other trench towards the Germans, he crept back with only a broken leg, & he was lifted at least ten yards’.

In a letter to his father on 7 March, he writes again about the fighting:

‘We have had rather a trying time lately & were sent off rather suddenly to take up some trenches in a different part of the line. The trenches were very bad & the Germans were rather uppish & thought they could do what they liked with us. However, I think we have put them in their places now, & they are certainly damned careful how they show themselves.

The Blokes we relieved had got the wind up rather badly & thought they never could look out of their trenches. So, of course the Bosch gave them beans. The trenches were in an awful state, one trench we had to abandon & dig a new one, we filled in the old one with 26 dead bodies in it, some of them all swollen up & so churned into the mud & slush that we could not pull them out even with a rope. In another they had to take the bodies out in bits & bury them, as the arms etc came away if you pulled them. I should think we buried at least 120 bodies, all under heavy fire at night

Your affectionate son,

Dick

P.S. Send me a box of decent cigars’

On 30 March 1915, the brothers received word their mother had died. In June, Dick was stationed at Bellewarde Lake, near Ypres. The 4th Battalion had captured the nearby wood, and according to the Regimental Battalion History: ‘At 10am the brigadier of the 7th Brigade had taken command; and he ordered Major Hely-Hutchinson to go into the wood which had just been captured by the battalion and organise the men who remained. This was immediately done’. The battalion could not hold the wood however, and had to retreat: ‘All day the battalion was under heavy artillery fire, and during the afternoon gas shells were used freely. Of the 22 officers and 820 men who entered the battle some 15 officers and 376 men became casualties… Major Hely-Hutchinson was badly wounded’.

The telegram which arrived at Alice’s home in Foxrock on 19 June, states: ‘Have arrived at 16 Bruton St, West. Slight wound in the head from shell graze. Will probably come over tomorrow or next day.’ But a telegram from the War Office two days later informed Alice that: ‘Major R.G. Hely-Hutchinson was slightly wounded on June 16th, but is “remaining at duty” until further notice’

He was back at the ‘front’ by mid summer and on 26 July, he wrote to Coote:

‘My dear Cooty, I am fit and well but slightly fatigued, we came out of the line yesterday morning. After 16 days severe fighting; so of course we are what you call slightly depleted.

We went into the line on the 8th & did an attack on the 14th, a real good one, everything went A1, & it was a great success. I went down the night before to see where I would dig in before the attack & the place where we had to go to was alive with bursting shells, so I was a little nervous as to how many I would lose before I got dug in….The attack was most successful; our bombardment was terrific, & the 1st line trench of the Germans was completely blotted out…we also captured a village & a German General with his staff’.

Although there are no family records placing Coote in France we do know that the 7th (Extra) Reserve Battalion, with whom Coote served, were called up from their training and landed at Le Havre on 24 July, 1916. Three days later they joined the 190th Brigade, 63rd (Royal Navy) Division. On 8 August, Dick wrote to Cissy about Paris, where he had spent a few days on leave:

Richard George Hely-Hutchinson at Seafield, January 1915c.

‘I have just come back from 72 hours leave in Paris & I had a top notch time there, & lived at the rate of several thousands a minute; but got great value for it. We stopped at the Ritz who gave us beautiful rooms, with a bathroom attached for 10 francs… We ate of the best and a good deal more & we saw no kaki & my mind was free of all care & worry, & nobody wanted to know what I am to do about this and that, & all the French ladies all said, “vive les braves officers Anglais”, & the entente was very good’.

Dick was wounded again at the end of 1916 and seems to have been appointed to lighter duties for a while with a territorial battalion in Guilford, Surrey. He returned to France as Commandant, Reinforcement Camp, 3rd Army Corps, British Armies in France on 5 November 1917, until 22 March 1918, Dick was wounded again in March 1918. In a letter to Cissy on 29 March, from Acheson Hospital, London he wrote:

Richard in hospital with shell graze in 1915.

‘Just about this time some Boches suddenly appeared in the road & all the men wanted to leave, however I rounded them up & started them to return the fire, & at that moment I got the bullet in the foot, so I handed over to Davies & proceeded to hobble back…

My servant Kitson got his arm round me & I walked about 1 1/2 miles, I then felt rather like collapsing, however Kitson spotted a handcart & got a hand from another man to put me on to the road. There were a few shells falling around, however Kitson pushed like a man & took me nearly 2 miles more to a Dressing Station, where they sent me on a stretcher to the next (station) where I got an ambulance to a village…

Then I got into pyjamas & my things were all put in a sack & a list made of them & that is the last I saw of them. No train came till next morning & I was much relieved as I did not want to be caught in pyjamas by the Boche’.

On recovery Dick was appointed Administrative Commandant of the British Armies in France until 19 November 1918.

Lieutenant Colonel Coote Hely-Hutchinson

The two brothers ended the war with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Dick retired from the Army on half-pay on 28 April 1920. He remained in England with Alice and Pamela. He seems to have kept in touch with some of his fellow former Royal Fusiliers and there is an interesting collection of Royal Fusiliers Christmas cards in the collection.

After the war, Coote returned to Swords to take over the family estate, the brothers’ father having died in 1919. In that year he was awarded an O.B.E for his services during the war. A year later he was appointed High Sherriff of Co. Dublin and was elected as a Councillor to Dublin County Council for the Balrothery Rural District. He served on a variety of Committees within Dublin County Council, including the first Libraries Committee, which included Hannah Sheehy-Skeffington, but his main focus seems to have been mental health services, particularly at nearby St. Ita’s Psychiatric Hospital, Portrane, and agricultural issues, where his opinion was often sought, as it was by the Royal Dublin Society. He continued shooting, and hunting with the Ward Union Hunt and the Fingal Harriers. On his death in 1930, the then President of Ireland Liam T Cosgrave sent his personal condolences to his wife Julia saying: ‘His country will miss the splendid public services and activities which he contributed to her welfare for so many years’.

Coote and his wife Julia had five children, one of whom, Michael, followed the family tradition and entered the British Army and served in the Second World War with the Royal Norfolk Regiment, and was a Prisoner of War in Malaysia. He returned to Broadmeadow Estuary for a while after the war and his daughter Caroline was one of the donors of the Hely-Hutchinson collection to Fingal Archives.

The full story of the Hely-Hutchinson brothers is told through an exhibition mounted at Fingal County Archives and Local Studies Library, Clonmel House, Swords where many more photographs and original documents from the HelyHutchison Collection will be on display. To visit the exhibition please contact:

Fingal County Archives

46 North St, Townparks

Swords

Co. Dublin

K67 F6Y3

E: archives@fingal.ie

Web: www.fingal.ie

March 18, 2021

LAST OUT – The Royal Munster Fusiliers on the Italian Front

By Pat Dargan

British regiment marching along a road near the Piave, on their
way to take up their position in the allied line on the Italian front.
(The Great War Vol. XI, 1918)

During the closing stages of the Great War, the 1st Garrison Battalion of the Royal Munster Fusiliers served on the Italian theatre of war, the only Irish regiment in the British Army to do so. One member of thebattalion was Private Patrick Dargan, my grandfather from Rutland Street, Limerick. He served as a clerk in the Pay Sergeant’s office and in his own words, never fired a shot in action, beyond his basic training.

At the beginning of the Great War in 1914 the Royal Munster Fusiliers was an infantry regiment of the British Army comprising of the 1st and 2nd Battalions. The regiment had its origins in India and this was reflected in the regimental cap badge, which consisted of a Bengal tiger mounted on a circular grenade burst. Over the period of the war, seven further battalions were raised and pressed into service in France, the Dardanelles and the Middle East. In around April 1917 the 1st Garrison Battalion was raised – one of a number of battalions formed specifically for home defence purposes. The rank and file members of the new battalion were made up of ‘C-Category’ men. That is men who were not appropriate for front line action, but more suitable for clerical or home guard duties. The battalion structure consisted of a headquarters unit and three infantry companies with the initial contingent drawn from other units of the Munsters, as well as from the Durham Light Infantry, the Leinster Regiment and the Connaught Rangers. The new battalion was initially based in Victoria Barracks in Cork, where its duties included guarding vulnerable points on the south Irish coast between the Shannon Estuary and Arklow, Co. Wicklow.

I am not sure exactly when my grandfather joined the 1st Garrison Battalion. He rarely spoke about the war except to say he saw little live action, as he acted as a battalion pay clerk. Prior to his joining up he had worked as a clerk in his father’s business in Limerick. When the army realised that, not only could he read and write, but he had experience of bookkeeping, he was posted to the Pay Sergeant’s office, where he served throughout the war. His one claim about his own war experience was that, other than during his basic training, he never fired a shot.

Highest trench in the war – ortler vorgipfelstellung 3850m (1917),

This initial tour of duty seems to have been uneventful except for two incidents in Arklow, where the battalion’s responsibility included guarding the vast Kynoch munitions factory and the town harbour facilities. In the early morning of 21 September 1917, the munitions plant suffered a massive and mysterious explosion which killed 27 workers. The soldier on guard duty was Private Richard Craig who gave evidence at the inquest on the following day. He stated that he could offer no explanation for the cause of the explosion other than to rule out an enemy attack from the sea. Curiously, the cause of the explosion was never satisfactorily explained. The same period also witnessed the death of Private Charles Reilly who was accidentally shot by a comrade while doing sentry duty at Porter’s Rock.

Figure 1: The Italian Front, November 1917, indicating the extent of the Austrian Caporetto Offensive

In November 1917 the 1st Garrison Battalion was posted to the military training camp at Prees Heath in Shropshire; where it underwent infantry and trench warfare training in preparation for front line action. Following this training period, the Battalion was ordered to Italy to join the Italian Expeditionary Force. A small number of troops remained behind in Prees Heath, where they formed the 2nd Garrison Battalion. This 2nd Garrison Battalion was subsequently moved to Portsmouth where it was involved in assembling drafts for service with the various Irish regiments for the remainder of the war, until it was disbanded in 1919.

By the end of 1917 the 1st Garrison Battalion had left Prees Heath for Southampton, from where they sailed for Le Harve. Here the battalion was transported across southern France by train. They passed through the Rivera and into northern Italy and by January 1918 joined the GHQ base in Arquata Scrivia. Along with two infantry battalions they were assigned to the lines of communication. The main duties of these troops were to act as a link between the GHQ and the main service troops and to provide a range of non-fighting services such as medical, engineering, and transport. They also provided guard and protection duties in areas such as the Base Headquarters, airfields and ammunition dumps, in addition to guarding prisoners of war.

The Italian Front opened in 1915 when Italy joined the British, French and Russian Allies against the Central Powers of Germany, Austria and Turkey. Between 1915 and 1917 the Italian and Austrian troops engaged one another in a series of eleven battles along the River Isonzo, which formed the frontier between the two countries, without either side achieving any significant advantage. In October 1917, as part of the Caporetto Offensive the Austrian and German armies finally broke through the Italian defences and advanced westwards into northern Italy, where they were halted at a line that stretched along the River Piave and swung westwards as far as the northern tip of Lake Garda (Fig1). At this juncture the Italians appealed to Britain and France for help to stem the advancing enemy. The Allies responded favourably and eleven divisions from both the British and French armies began the move to Italy from the Western Front. At the end of October two of the British divisions returned to France, at which point the Italian Expeditionary Force was made up of the 7th, 23rd and 48th Divisions, as well as the General Headquarters (GHQ).

Figure 2: The Italian Front, October 1918, indicating the extent of the Italian Vittorio Veneto Offensive, as well as the Arquata Scrivia, Cremona, Legnano, and Montecchio War Cemeteries.

In June 1918 the Austrians launched the Piave Offensive with the aim of advancing beyond the line of the Piave River. The offensive failed and Austrians retreated behind the river. In October the Italian army, including the British divisions, launched a successful two pronged counter attack against the enemy. By the beginning of November the Italian troops, with the French and British contingents had pressed northwards and into Austria. At the same time the allied army moved eastwards and crossed the River Piave, where the Austrian army fell back and totally collapsed within a few days (Fig.2). An armistice was signed on 3 November 1918, and hostilities were brought to a close.

Normally it is possible to trace the activities of British military units during the First World War from the Regimental War Diaries. These are the day-to-day records of the military events experienced by most battalions in the British army during the war. The diaries were completed in the field and were sent to the War Office in London on a regular basis. Today these diaries are housed in the National Archives in Kew, where they are accessible to the general public. Unfortunately, the diaries of the 1st Garrison Battalion have been lost, so very little detail of the Battalion’s activities on the Italian Front is available. Despite this it is possible to piece together some of the Battalion’s experiences from the limited range of publications that deal with the British Army’s involvement on Italian Front, such as the works of Barnett, Edmonds, McCance, and Barnsley, as well as from the details provided by the Commonwealth War Grave Commission internet.

As the British troops and GHQ moved eastwards across northern Italy, it must be assumed that some, at least, of the 1st Garrison Battalion moved with them, but it does seem that, at times, the battalion was split into different sections. For example Sir James Edmonds in the ‘Official History of the Great War’, notes that three companies of the 1st Garrison Battalion served with the ‘Lines of Communication’ at the beginning of 1918, but by June of the same year this number had been reduced to two. In another example, the War Graves Commission notes that Lance Corporal Paton served with the 63rd Anti-Aircraft Section. The War Graves Commission internet site provides information relating to the members of the Royal Munster Fusiliers who were killed in action in Italy and who lie buried in the war graves that lie between the Arquata Scrivia base and the River Piave (Fig.2). Eight members of the battalion were buried in Arquata Scrivia, two were buried at Cremone, two at Montecchio and a single member was buried at Legnano (Fig.3). This suggests that the 1st Garrison Battalion members served in that area of the war front between Arquata Scrivia and the River Piave.

Following the Italian armistice the 1st Garrison Battalion seems to have returned to the Arquata Base, where it continued to undertake guard and administration duties. On 11 November 1918, the General Armistice came into effect and the Italian Expeditionary Force began the slow process of returning home. Finally in 1920, it was the turn of the 1st Garrison Battalion and in April of that year it returned to England – the final British Army unit to leave Italy. It is interesting to note that just prior to this Private Daniel Corless died on 7 January 1920, and was buried in the Arquata Scriva cemetery. In April the 1st Garrison Battalion retuned to Plymouth and there it was disbanded on 4 May 1920.

On his return back to Ireland Patrick Dargan remained in the army, but as a civilian. He was based in the Artillery Barracks in Limerick where his duties consisted of checking the quartermaster’s accounts from barracks across the Munster area. Curiously during this period his sons were active members of the Volunteers. The older boy, John, was a member of the Limerick City Active Service Unit while the younger son, Thomas, was interned in Spike Island.

Help for Italy’s women and children: British reinforcements passing through an Italian country town. (The Great War Vol. XI, 1918)

After Thomas was arrested, Grandfather was accused of being a spy and he was dismissed from his post by the army. He immediately telegrammed the War Office in London explaining he had been dismissed by the army. The War Office telegrammed him back and instructed him to get back to work immediately as the army had no authority to dismiss him as he was an employee of the War Office – not the army. Later when the British Army withdrew from Ireland after the Anglo/Irish Treaty, the War Office offered him a similar position in Liverpool, but he declined and spent the remainder of his life in Limerick.

The only other reference I have of my grandfather and his war experience was that when he had a few drinks with his old army comrades in Limerick, they liked to sing the Munster Fusiliers, to the air of the British Grenadiers.

With the establishment of the Irish Free State the British Army disbanded six of their Irish regiments. In June 1922 the Royal Munster Fusiliers, the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, the Connaught Rangers, the Royal Irish Regiment, the Leinster Regiment, and the South Irish Horse, were stood down. Their colours were presented to King George V at Windsor Castle and the Royal Munster Fusiliers as a British regiment ceased to exist.

March 10, 2021March 18, 2021

County Donegal in 1914 – 1918 Part 2: World War I

County Donegal 1914 – 1918 Part 2: World War I

By Donegal County Museum

Finner training Camp, Co. Donegal, during World War I. (Donegal County Museum collection)

When war was declared on 4 August 1914, there were already over 25,000 Irishmen serving in the regular British Army with another 30,000 Irishmen in the reserve. As most of the great European powers were drawn into the war, it spread to European colonies all over the world. Men from Donegal found themselves fighting not only in Europe, but also in Egypt and Mesopotamia, as well as in Africa and on ships in the North Sea and in the Mediterranean.

1916 was the worst year of the war, with more soldiers killed in that year than in any other year. By the end of 1916, stalemate on land had truly set in with both sides firmly entrenched on the Western Front. Gone was the belief that the war would be ‘over by Christmas’, and a new understanding of the price to be paid started to emerge.

Postcard from World War I. (Donegal County Museum collection)

Recruitment meetings were held all over Co. Donegal. In 1916, the Department of Recruiting in Ireland wrote to Bishop O’Donnell, in Donegal, requesting, ‘. . . that recruiting meetings might with advantage be held outside the Churches . . . after Mass on Sundays and Holidays’.

Men from all communities and from all corners of Donegal enlisted. For many the reasons for enlisting were a combination of unemployment, idealism and adventure. The pay was good compared to other employment and an allowance was paid to the spouse of the soldier while he was away on duty.

Irish chaplains of all denominations, volunteered for service during the War. In January 1916, a Circular was sent to the Bishops of Ireland, requesting their assistance in soliciting Catholic priests to volunteer. Fr. Seán McGlynn, Fr. William MacNeely, Fr. Thomas Molloy, Fr. Hugh Smith, Fr. William Devine, Rev. Dr. Barry Duggan and Fr. John McGlynn were among those who volunteered from the Donegal Diocese.

Recruiting in Co. Donegal. (Donegal County Museum collection)

Fr. Patrick Carr (also known as Canon Kerr) from Fanad, Co. Donegal, who volunteered in 1916, wrote from France, ‘Only those who have been subject to the withering breath of war . . . can catch a glimpse of the true extent of ruin and misery brought about by the ‘Great War’’.

Reverend J. Jackson Wright, a Presbyterian Minister from Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal, served with the 36th (Ulster) Division and was awarded the Military Cross after the Battle of the Somme.

Women also played an important role in the war effort, at home and on the frontlines. They participated in recruiting and staffed volunteer hospitals, and they worked on the front as nurses. Sr. Catherine Black from Ramelton, Co Donegal, was sent to France in 1916, where she nursed shell-shocked soldiers. She wrote, ‘…at night, the cheerful ward became a place of torment, with the occupants of every bed tossing and turning and moaning in the hell of memories let loose’.

Sr. Catherine Black. (Image from ‘Kings Nurse, Beggars Nurse’, 1939, by Catherine Black)

In rural areas, women worked to gather sphagnum moss for surgical dressings which were in huge demand. In Dungloe, women could earn up to £2 per week knitting supplies for the war. Members of the Letterkenny based St. Eunan’s Cathedral Guilds working circles made garments for Irish Prisoners of War. The first instalment of Guild work was sent off in January 1916.

Although World War I was fought mainly on land, command of the sea enabled the Allies to transport the vital resources required on the Western Front and elsewhere. On 31 May 1916, the Battle of Jutland took place between the British Royal Navy’s Grand Fleet and the Imperial German Navy’s High Seas Fleet. It was the largest naval battle of the war and the only full-scale clash of battleships.

Lanty Gallagher from Carrickfinn, Co. Donegal, was a Gunner on HMS Lion during the Battle of Jutland. It is reputed that he fired the first shots which began the battle. Ninety-nine men were killed and 51 wounded on HMS Lion including Lanty, who was struck by a piece of shrapnel. He returned home after the war.

Gunner Lanty Gallagher, HMS Lion, Battle of Jutland. (Donegal County Museum collection)

Donegal men who were killed at the Battle of Jutland included: Alexander Hamilton, Laghey, Royal Marine Light Infantry, HMS Defence; George Robinson, St. Johnson, Engine Room Artificer, HMS Indefatigable; and John Todd, Rathmullan, Stoker 1st Class, HMS Defence.

Early in the War on the Western Front both sides dug lines of trenches that stretched from the Belgian coast to the border of Switzerland. A Battalion typically served time in the front line trenches, followed by a period spent in support, and then in reserve lines. A short period of rest would follow before the cycle would start again.

Lieutenant Hugh Francis Law, Irish Guards. (Law Family Private Collection)

Hugh Francis Law, 1st Battalion Irish Guards, from Marble Hill, Co. Donegal, described life in the trenches, ‘…as an endless labour of repairing collapsing ditches, filling sandbags, venturing out under darkness towards enemy lines through barbed wire. The dead were everywhere in no man’s land, and casualties had to be constantly tended to’.

In May 1916, Hugh Law heard news of the Easter Rising in Dublin but reported that, ‘no talk of it or its implications were apparent from his men’.

Soldiers waded through water-filled trenches alive with frogs and covered with red slugs and horned beetles. Rats fed on the multitude of corpses, contaminating food and spreading disease. Lice thrived in the seams of dirty uniforms and carried an infectious disease known as Trench Fever.

The smell in the trenches was a foul combination of rotting corpses, latrines, sweat, creosol and chloride of lime that was used to lessen the risk of infection and to drive away flies. The moist cold subterranean environment gave rise to a new set of ailments including Trench Foot caused by having to stand in wet slime for days and nights.

The 16th (Irish) Division was subject to a terrible gas attack at Hulluch in Northern France, between 27-29 April (Easter Week), 1916, which resulted in 1,980 casualties. Among those who died were men from Donegal including Michael Doherty, Letterkenny, 26005, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers; Francis Hegarty, Frosses, 17009, Royal Dublin Fusiliers; and John Doherty, Fanad, 14507, Royal Dublin Fusiliers.

For many homes in Donegal, 1916 was remembered as the Year of the Somme. The Battle of the Somme began on 1 July 1916, when at 7:30 a.m., the whistles blew for the soldiers to go over the top. By midnight on that first day over 60,000 British soldiers had been killed, wounded or taken prisoner. Over 80 men from Donegal died on the first day of the Somme.

In the subsequent months, the Battle waged on and more men from Donegal were wounded and killed. Many are remembered on the Thiepval Memorial in France along with 74,000 other soldiers whose bodies were never found.

Private Hugh Mulhern, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. (Mulhern Private Family Collection)

Private Hugh Mulhern, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, from Baltoney, Gortahork, Co. Donegal, was wounded by a grenade during the Somme. He was rescued from No Man’s Land by his neighbour from Gortahork, who saved his life by carrying him to a Casualty Clearing Station. His right hand was amputated from above the wrist and he lost the first finger from his left hand.

Injury Notice relating to Acting Company Sergeant Major Hugh Foy, July 1st, 1916. (Foy Family Collection)

The Battle of the Somme eventually petered out in November 1916. It was a tragedy on a breathtaking scale. British forces lost 420,000 soldiers. The French lost 200,000 and the Germans nearly 500,000.

Private Joseph Andrew Armstrong was born in Ballybofey, Co. Donegal. He enlisted in 1915 with the 54th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force. He was listed as ‘Killed in Action’ on 20 July 1916, during the Battle of the Somme. Later, on 7 December 1916, he was officially reported as a Prisoner of War (POW). In a statement Private Armstrong said:

‘We took part in an action against enemy position at 6 p.m. on 19th July 1916. Our instructions were to take the 2nd line of trenches. We captured the 2nd line. The enemy counter-attacked early next morning and recaptured position and made prisoners of us all. We were all severely wounded and had to be carried off the battlefield on a stretcher. I (Private Armstrong) was lying severely wounded between first and second line of German trenches, when Sgt. Wilson, 53th Batt, came out under heavy fire and assisted me into the first trench. After capture we were taken to a dressing station at Lille and then transferred to Valenciuis where we were all operated upon by a German Doctor. I (Private Armstrong) had 12 pieces of shrapnel taken from different parts of my body’.

(Witness Statement Official Circumstances of Capture, Australian Imperial Forces, December 1918). After the Armistice, Private Armstrong was repatriated to Australia.

For Donegal, and Europe, the war was far from over. For two more years the war dragged on costing millions of more lives. Soon after the end of the war Co. Donegal, along with the rest of Ireland, was pulled into a struggle for independence.

This article is part of a History and Education Pack, ‘County Donegal in 1916: From the Edge’ which was produced by Cultural Services Division, Donegal County Council as part of the Ireland 2016 centenary commemorations.

Donegal County Museum

For further information, please contact

Donegal County Museum,

An Bóthar Ard,

Leitir Ceanainn,

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