On This Day – 11.11.1918 Armistice Day

Posted on November 11, 2016 by Myles Dungan

The World had seen nothing like it before. At least nine million men had died in combat and more than twice that number had been wounded. Untold and often uncounted millions of civilians had perished in the conflict itself and its many Ugly Sisters, such as the Armenian Massacre and the Russian Revolution. Sadly the ‘war to end all wars’, didn’t, and the process was repeated twenty years later with even more tragic and disastrous results.

But it had to come to an end at some point and eventually it did. Germany was in no position to fight on. The Generals did what they often do, made sure the blame was passed to politicians and then retired, or waited to get the whole thing started all over again.

Three days of intense negotiations in a forest near Compiegne in France yielded little more than an abject, unconditional surrender for Germany after one thousand five hundred and sixty-six days of fighting. Hostilities were to cease at 11.00 am on the 11^th November, entirely coincidentally but poetically and memorably, the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month.

For the British Army it was a clear case of déjà vu. Their war ended where it had begun, outside the Belgian city of Mons. Which is why five of the first and four of the final British fatalities of the war are buried in St. Symphorien Cemetery a few yards, and nine million lives, apart.

The last British soldier to die did so at 9.30 am on the morning of the 11^th. George Ellison from Leeds was serving in the Fifth Royal Irish Lancers when he met his end. He is buried facing the grave of John Parr, the first British fatality of the conflict.

You might expect a spirit of ‘live and let live’ on the last day of such an obscene war. But actually it was mostly business as usual. The American General Pershing decided his army had not lost nearly enough men and ordered vigorous actions to be conducted against the Germans right up to the 11^th hour. More than 10,000 men were killed, wounded or were taken prisoner on the ultimate day. 3000 of those were American.

Irishmen responded in various ways, some with rapture, others with indifference and apathy. One Dublin Fusilier, the unrepentant southern unionist Captain Noel Drury wrote in his diary that ..

it’s like when one heard of the death of a friend – a sort of forlorn feeling. I went along and read the order to the men, but they just stared at me and showed no enthusiasm at all. One or two muttered “We were just getting a bit of our own back” They all had the look of hounds whipped off just as they were about to kill.

Another veteran, Frank Hitchcock of the Leinster Regiment, brother of the Hollywood director Rex Ingram recalled that …

The Brigadier had galloped up and yelled out: “The War is over! The Kaiser has abdicated!” We were typically Irish, and never cheered except under adverse conditions, such as shell-fire and rain. Somewhat crestfallen the Brigadier rode slowly off to communicate his glad tidings to an English battalion, who, no doubt took the news in a different way.

Terence Poulter, another Dublin Fusilier, who survived into old age, was more excited at the end of hostilities.

Approaching eleven o’clock in our sector you could have heard a pin drop. When eleven o’clock came there were loud cheers. The war was over as far as we were concerned.

Back in London Big Ben was rung for the first time since August 1914 while in Paris, gas lamps were lit for the first time in four years as the Great War finally came to an end ninety eight years ago, on this day.

On This Day – Drivetime – 10.4.1918 – British Parliament proposes conscription in Ireland 

Posted on April 10, 2015 by Myles Dungan

In late 1917 the British satirical magazine Punch, the Charlie Hebdo of its day, printed a cartoon, the context for which was the progress – or lack of it – of the First World War. It depicted two men with a large comb divided into equal parts marked ‘England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.’ The Irish section was toothless. The magazine, not noted for its admiration of ‘John Bull’s other island’ was suggesting that this country was not sending enough of its young men to stop machine-gun bullets on the Western Front and that it was high time the government did something about it. Compulsory military service for men between 18-40 had been introduced in Britain in early 1916.

A few months after Punch’s barb Lloyd George’s administration, which had hesitated to bring conscription to Ireland, finally grasped the nettle with the introduction in the House of Commons of an amendment to the Military Service Act. This raised the age limit to fifty and ended Ireland’s exemption.

The move came, essentially, as a panic measure in the wake of the crippling and humiliating German offensive of 21 March 1918.

The Home Secretary, Sir George Cave, in proposing the extension of compulsory military service to Ireland observed that ‘we are advised that it will yield a large number of men.’ The doubly bereaved Irish MP and British Army officer, Captain William Archer Redmond, who had lost his father and uncle in the preceding nine months, inquired ‘May I ask the right hon. Gentleman who advised him?’ The implication was clear. The Irish, who had volunteered in respectable if unspectacular numbers, were not going to be forced to join the British Army.

Cave was then interrupted by a passionate interjection from the Irish Party MP for Kerry North, Michael Flavin who shouted, ominously, at the government benches, ‘You come over and try it.’

John Dillon, leader of the Irish party since the death the previous month of John Redmond, pointed out that the raising of the military age and the extension of conscription to this country would have no impact on the military disaster that was the German Spring offensive in terms of manpower. It would take months to train the new conscripts by which time it looked then as if the Germans would be drinking champagne on the Champs Elysee and accepting the surrender of France and Britain. As it happens, by the time the debate began the German offensive had already begun to peter out and it would not be long before the Allies rolled back the German gains and made huge advances of their own that ended the war in November.

That they did so without any Irish conscripts was a function of a concerted and determined campaign in Ireland. A national strike, the opposition of the Roman Catholic hierarchy, a series of massive public meetings and the temporary shelving of the political differences between the moderate nationalist Irish Parliamentary and the more radical Sinn Fein ensured that the British government concluded it would cost more troops to enforce conscription than would be raised.

Had they not done so, and in the unlikely event that they had been successful in forcing Irishmen into the Army the death toll of Irish soldiers might well have greatly exceeded the 35,000 who did perish in the ironically titled ‘war to end all wars’.

The proposal to extend compulsory military service to Ireland was brought to the floor of the House of Commons 97 years ago, on this day.

IRISH SOLDIERS WHO DIED IN THE SERVICE OF AUSTRALIA, CANADA, INDIA, NEW ZEALAND, SOUTH AFRICA AND THE USA IN WW1

Posted on October 20, 2014 by Myles Dungan

[This is a companion piece to an article that is due to appear in the Irish Times WW1 Supplement on 22.10.14]

Work on the 49,000+ names in the Irish National War Memorial Records suggests that around 36,500 of the names contained in the eight-volume memorial are of men born in Ireland and serving, mostly but not exclusively, in the British Army.[1]

But what of the Irishmen who enlisted (Australia) or were conscripted (Canada, USA, New Zealand) in armies other than that of Britain? How many Irishmen died in the service of Colonial forces and that of the USA? The answer is, as with so many statistical questions related to the Great War, that we don’t know. We can come up with a rough estimate but detailed and intensive research would be required to give a definitive answer, if indeed such an answer is possible.

Thanks to the Trojan work of Professor Jeff Kildea and the Irish Anzacs Database we now know that 5774 Irish-born soldiers fought in the Australian Imperial Force in the Great War of whom 860 died.[2] This study reveals as a major underestimate the figures compiled by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which puts the number of Irish-born dead in the Australian armed forces at 488.

My own researches into the Irish dead in the New Zealand army (which I will upload in a few weeks when the work is in a better state of readiness) suggests a figure of around 280 Irish fatalities in units of that 100,000-strong force. This is largely confirmed by the information gleaned from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website.

It appears that around 20,000 Irishmen served in a Canadian Expeditionary Force that conscripted 630,000 men (just over 400,000 of whom went to Europe).[3] Of those around 65,000 were lost.[4] On that basis (a 10.3% death rate) up to 2000 Irishmen may have died while serving in the CEF. However, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website suggests around half this figure. It records 960 Canadian fatalities of Irish origin.[5] However, given the Australian underestimate the numbers may be higher. Canadian attestation papers asked the question ‘in what town, township or parish and in what country were you born.’ It is possible that a number of recruits neglected to include their country of birth or used an abbreviation such as ‘Irl’, thus rendering themselves inaccessible on the CWGC website. The same may be true of other colonial forces – this may account for the Australian discrepancy.

The USA is proving, and will continue to prove, most problematic.

By the end of the war the US Army numbered almost 4.4 million men.[6] However, only half of these actually served overseas. The figure for US fatalities was 116,000 (around half that number died of flu). There is, unfortunately, no indication in the three-volume publication listing American fatalities, Soldiers of the Great War, of the birthplaces of any of American dead.

What we do know is that 24 million American men were required to register for the draft.[7] Around 18% of those either volunteered for service or were conscripted, though less than 10% served on the Western Front.

The probable total of those with Irish origins who registered for the draft comes to 65,025.[8] Extrapolating from the overall figure that would give us a cohort of around 11,700 (18%) Irish-born men actually serving in the US Armed forces. There may well have been more if Irish-born men volunteered in disproportionate numbers. The names of early volunteers do not show up in the Draft Registration Cards. However, this is unlikely given Irish-American antipathy to the war before American entry into the conflict in April 1917. In addition many of the most enthusiastic Irish are reckoned to have gone to Canada and joined the CEF.

We don’t know how many of that highly speculative number, of just under twelve thousand, actually went abroad. If we extrapolate once again we come up with a figure of under 6000. The American fatality rate was relatively small, around 6%, or a ratio of one death for every seventeen serving soldiers (1:17). On that basis Irish-born fatalities in the US Army could have been as low as 350, on a par with that of New Zealand in absolute terms but small in proportionate terms. The truth is we don’t know, the process of arriving at the figure of 350 is highly speculative and it will be extremely laborious and time-consuming to attempt to discover the true figure.

As regards Irishmen in the South African and Indian Armies, while there were undoubtedly some serving in both forces, the bulk of the million-strong Indian Army was Indian-born and suffered 62,000 deaths, while total South African fatalities came to under 7,000 of the 74,000 who served.[9] The Commonwealth War Graves Commission lists 80 names of members of the South African armed forces associated with Ireland and 13 (all officers) for the Indian Army. In the case of the former however the South Africa War Graves project lists 181 names associated with Ireland, though a detailed examination is required to ascertain how many of these are likely to have been born in this country.

Based on hard but incomplete evidence for Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa and Canada, and little more than informed speculation regarding the USA the figures for Irish-born dead in the main Imperial armed forces and those of the USA might, at a minimum, look something like this.

AUSTRALIA 860

NEW ZEALAND 280

CANADA 960

INDIA 13

SOUTH AFRICA 80

USA 350

TOTAL c.2,543

There is, however, a further difficulty with these figures. It is not possible simply to add this number to the total number of Irish dead recorded in the INWMR. Almost a thousand names in that record are of men who served in the Colonial or American armed forces. In most cases there is no indication in the records as to their place of birth, they have simply been added to the INWMR. However, despite the fact that they are numbered among the 7405 men recorded in the INWMR but not assigned a country of birth, it is likely that all are of Irish origin. It would appear utterly pointless to have included the names of men serving in, for example, the Australian or Canadian armies in a record of the Irish dead, who themselves have no connection whatever with this country. We must assume that certain information was available to the compilers of the INWMR which meant the name warranted inclusion in the Irish records while the criterion used [Ireland as place of birth] was not included in the record of the dead soldier.

INWMR RECORDING OF DECEASED IN COLONIAL OR US ARMIES

TOTAL IRISH OTHER NO NATIONALITY INDICATED

CANADA 644 58 4 582

USA 52 14 20 18

AUSTRALIA 230 21 17 192

NEW ZEAL. 75 15 3 57

INDIA 127 11 73 43

S.AFRICA 72 10 8 54

TOTAL 1200 129 125 946

Only those numbered Column 3 (Other) are unambiguously not Irish. The 129 names in Column 2 are definitively identified as Irish – the mystery is the place of birth of the remaining 946 and why, if they are not all Irish, they found their way into the Irish National War Memorial Records in the first place?

[If anyone has any helpful observations to make or any worthwhile statistics to contribute based on their own researches please contact me on www.irishhistory@gmail.com. I am new to this particular field of Irish World War 1 studies so I am happy to be corrected on any of the assertions contained above.]

[1] 30,986 have Ireland as their place of birth – the remainder of the figure is made up of the extrapolated Irish ‘share’ of the 7404 names with no known place of birth.

[2] http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/irish-in-australia-were-not-shirkers-in-first-world-war-1.1967446

[3] http://www.1914-1918.net/faq.htm

[4] http://www.cwgc.org/learning-and-resources/publications/annual-report.aspx

[5] The methodology employed here was simple and far from foolproof. The word ‘Ireland’ was inserted in the ‘additional information’ box in the CWGC ‘Find War Dead’ search engine. ‘First World War’ and ‘Canadian Forces’ were also selected. This brought up 975 records matching the search criteria. 16 of these represented non-Irish entries of men named ‘Ireland’. When the word ‘Irish’ was Adjustments were made for fatalities with the surname ‘Ireland’. The same methodology was employed in the case of Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India.

[6] http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/resources/casdeath_pop.html

[7] http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=6482

[8] This calculation is based on the insertion of ‘Ireland’ as a keyword in the Ancestry.com Draft Registration Cards 1917-18 (66713) and the subtraction from that figure of 1688 men whose surname was Ireland.

[9] http://www.1914-1918.net/faq.htm

SOME USEFUL SOURCES OF INFORMATION FOR TRACING IRISH WW1 SOLDIERS

Posted on May 19, 2014 by Myles Dungan

This is my grand-uncle Pat O’Reilly, Baileborough, Co.Cavan – died on the Somme in September 1916 – his Lives of the First World War Site is here

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about this – I’m no expert but I hope this helps.

If you are too daunted to do the work yourself I can recommend Gordon Power, military genealogist as one of the best researchers in this area. I have only met the guy once (last Saturday in Waterford Library at our Great War Roadshow) where he gave an amazing presentation) so I have no agenda and I’m not on a percentage of whatever fee he might charge. He can be emailed at gordonpower@yahoo.com

SOME USEFUL SOURCES OF INFORMATION FOR TRACING WW1 SOLDIERS

CAVEAT: 70% of the actual service records of WW1 soldiers were damaged or destroyed in the Blitz – so you may be disappointed in the quality and quantity of information available.

There is currently a plethora of websites willing to sell you information on your ancestor(s) who served. Often, however, there is no additional information available than details you can accumulate free of charge.

COMMONWEALTH WAR GRAVES COMMISSION

www.cwgc.org

Search under ‘Find War Dead’ – also select ‘war’ and ‘service’ (ie ‘Army’, ‘Navy’ etc) – [Smith, J]
2079 records match your search – here you will need to know the name of his regiment and, if possible, his service number – Click on name – more information available on cemetery

IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM

https://livesofthefirstworldwar.org

Imperial War Museum project. Essentially they are inviting you to add information to the personal web page they have created (one of 4.5 million so far) for a ‘remembered’. However, there is already some basic information on each soldier on their webpage.

Search by name, unit or service number – ‘John Smith’
6552 results for ‘John Smith’ – choose the most likely one and click on the name – [British Army Royal Engineers Inland Waterways Transport, Service #220]
Click on ‘Search Official Records’ – this may give date and place of birth
Return to ‘Private John Smith’ homepage – click on Medal Index Card
Select ‘? Facts were added in this source of evidence’

If you do have additional information / images of your ancestor do the world a favour and upload it onto this site for posterity.

BRITISH NATIONAL ARCHIVES

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/first-world-war/

NOTE: All the files below are available for inspection in The National Archive Reading Room in Kew in London

Unit War Diaries. (WO95)

These can be a mine of information [mostly typed and readable] or skimpy beyond belief. It’s the luck of the draw.

The good news is that some of this particular record series (WO95) has been digitized so the war diaries of battalions within the first 33 divisions of the army are available online. [Not much good if you want to research a relative in the 36^th (Ulster) Division]

Search by going to http://nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/war-diaries-ww1.htm and entering the regiment, battalion, brigade or division number in the box provided.

There may be a charge for downloading.

Medal Card Index (WO 372)

All soldiers who served overseas were entitled to a service medal of some description. In addition many earned medals for gallantry. Each of those who served overseas (male or female) had a dedicated medal card. There are over 5m of these in the British National Archives in Kew

A charge of £3.30 is incurred if you wish to view a .pdf of the actual card. This may contain additional information on the soldier who is the object of your research.

A full list of TNA digitized WW1 collections can be seen at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/first-world-war/centenary-digitised-records.htm

Silver War Badge records

The badge, which came into being in September 1916, was awarded to all of those military personnel who had served at home or overseas during the war, and who had been discharged from the army under King’s Regulations. This generally meant that the soldier had been released on account of being permanently physically unfit.

If your relative was discharged before September 1916 he may still have received a badge retrospectively.

The badges were useful for deflecting the grim attentions of members of the Order of the White Feather (who once presented a white feather to a sailor in civilian clothing on his way to accept the Victoria Cross). Wounded veterans could point to their silver war badge as evidence that they had not avoided enlistment. Badges bore the inscription ‘For King and Empire – Services Rendered.

The ‘Long Long Trail website gives an excellent rundown on the nature and scope of the records.

http://www.1914-1918.net/soldiers/swbrecords.html

ANCESTRY.COM

www.ancestry.com

In some instances you will be re-directed from sites like The British National Archives to ancestry.com become this company has digitized many of the WW1 holdings of TNA. So I figured it was better to cut out the middleman here.

Some records may be hard to track down if they have been misfiled in the first instance and if names can not to read properly by the optical character recognition equipment.

Access to this service may be available free of charge through your local library

British Army WW1 Service Records 1914-1920 (WO363) ‘The Burnt records’

http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=1219

This database contains the surviving service records of non-commissioned officers and other ranks who served in WWI and did not re-enlist in the Army prior to World War II. With the final release, this database now contains the entire service records collection.

These records contain a variety of forms, including:

Attestation forms – the form completed by the individual on enlistment

Medical history forms

Casualty forms

Disability statements

Regimental conduct sheets

Awards

Proceedings on Discharge

Cover for Discharge Documents

Index Cards

Information available in these records includes:

Name of soldier

Age

Birthplace

Occupation

Marital status

Regimental number

Date of attestation

Physical description

An absolute goldmine if your man’s records survived the German bombs AND the fireman’s hoses. But only a 1:3 chance that you will turn up the relevant file.

British Army WW1 Pension Records (WO364)

http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=1114

Known as ‘The Unburnt Records’. Potentially useful where WW1 survivors are concerned

This database contains service records of non-commissioned officers and other ranks who were discharged from the Army and claimed disability pensions for service in WWI. These were also men who did not re-enlist in the Army prior to World War II. Approximately 5 million men served in the British Army in World War One (WWI) and these records contain many of them, especially if they claimed a pension.

These records contain a variety of forms, including:

Attestation forms – the form completed by the individual on enlistment

Medical history forms

Casualty forms

Disability statements

Regimental conduct sheets

Awards

Information available in these records includes:

Name of soldier

Age

Birthplace

Occupation

Marital status

Regimental number

Date of attestation

Physical description

NB: Don’t bother if your soldier was killed in action or was not entitled to a disability pension

NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF IRELAND

1901 and 1911 CENSUS

In the absence of conscription in Ireland the two digitized Irish censuses are not quite as useful as their British equivalents. However, they can certainly indicate whether the name for which you are searching was a male of military age (18-41 18-51 from 1918)

Soldiers Wills

To circumvent the necessity for a will to be witnessed legislation allowed soldiers to make wills on forms included in their paybooks.

At least 9000 of the 30,000+ Irish soldiers who died chose this option and their wills are preserved in the National Archives of Ireland. The wills have also been digitized and can be read online at http://soldierswills.nationalarchives.ie/search/sw/

OTHER IRISH ONLINE ARCHIVE SOURCES

http://www.militaryarchives.ie/collections/online-collections/military-service-pensions-collection

The Irish Military Service Pensions are likely to become an increasingly useful source in years to come. At the moment the only information available is on 1916 veterans but as time goes on the files of Irish WW1 veterans who went on to join the IRA and fight in the War of Independence should also become available. There were at least 116 WW1 veterans in the IRA during the Anglo Irish War. Your grandad might have been one of them.

For the same reason it would be useful to consult the Bureau of Military History witness statements. Many names appear of men unconnected with the IRA. Perhaps your ancestor was an IRA target because of their WW1 service.

http://www.bureauofmilitaryhistory.ie/index.html

OTHER USEFUL WEBSITES

Irish National War Memorial Records – compiled in the 1920s and giving rise to the myth that 49,500 Irishmen died in the war – now searchable via

http://imr.inflandersfields.be/search.html – in some cases there is more information than on the CWGC website

The Long, Long,Trail: The British Army in the Great War of 1914-1918

http://www.1914-1918.net . This site includes a useful tutorial page on how to go about researching a soldier – http://www.1914-1918.net/soldiers/research.html

www.forces-war-records.co.uk

Forces War Records is the sister site of Forces Reunited, the leading British military community on the web with more than one million members and reuniting veterans since 2001, part of Clever Digit Media Ltd.

This is a commercial site but is useful and user friendly.

www.rootschat.com – other people might be able to suggest avenues of research if you are facing dead ends

http://www.wartimememoriesproject.com/greatwar/

www.findmypast.ie – a commercial site but often accessible FOC via your local library

LOCAL AND NATIONAL NEWSPAPERS

The Irish Times digital archive is a very useful source, especially for Dublin-based soldiers – however, it is likely to have more information on deceased soldiers than on those who survived – searchable

The Freeman’s Journal and Irish Independent for the Great War period are available on the Irish Newspaper Archive website – as are many local newspapers of the period (eg Kerryman, Limerick Leader, Meath Chronicle etc] – you can subscribe yourself to search and download but your local library may have an account with INA which will allow you to access the site FOC on library computers.

It may also be worth checking the London Gazette for details of military honours awarded

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/all-notices/content/116

Irish regimental/museum websites

Some additional information can be found on the following websites, mostly maintained by dedicate enthusiasts who are willing to help you in your searches.

http://royalirishrifles.webs.com

www.rdfa.ie

http://www.rmfa92.org

http://connaughtrangersassoc.com

http://homepage.eircom.net/~tipperaryfame/leinster.htm– Leinster Regiment

http://www.irishguards.org.uk/pages/history/index.html

http://royalirishrangers.co.uk/irish.html– Royal Irish Fusiliers

http://www.inniskillingsmuseum.com– facility to ‘trace a relative’ at a cost of £28

SOME REGIMENTAL HISTORIES , USEFUL MEMOIRS & OTHER WORKS

These will often give general ‘feel’ for the experience of your relatives and might even mention them specifically. I came across a reference to my own granduncle’s death (he was a mere rifleman/private) in Taylor’s history of the 2^nd Royal Irish Rifles in the Great War.

Cooper, Bryan, The Tenth (Irish) Division in Gallipoli (Dublin, Irish Academic Press, 1993).

Cunliffe, Marcus, The Royal Irish Fusiliers, 1793-1968 (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1970).

Denman, Terence, Ireland’s Unknown Soldiers: the 16^th Irish Division in the Great War (Dublin, Irish Academic Press, 1992).

Doherty, Richard, The Sons of Ulster (Belfast, Appletree, 1992).

Dooley, Thomas, Irishmen or English Soldiers: The Times and World of a Southern Catholic Irish Man (1876-1916) Enlisting in the British Army in the First World War (Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, 1995).

Dungan, Myles Irish Voices from the Great War (Irish Academic Press, Dublin 1995)

Dungan, Myles, They Shall Grow not Old: Irish soldiers and the Great War (Dublin, Four Courts Press, 1997).

Feilding, Rowland, War Letters to a Wife (London, Medici Society, 1929),

Fox, Sir Frank, The Royal Inniskilling Rifles in the World War (London, Constable, 1928).

Grayson, Richard S., Belfast Boys: How Unionists and Nationalists Fought and Died Together in the First World War (London, Continuum, 2009).

Hanna, Henry, The Pals at Suvla Bay (Dublin, Ponsonby, 1916).

Harris, Henry, Irish Regiments in the First World War (Cork, Mercier Press, 1968).

Hitchcock, Frank, Stand To: a Diary of the Trenches (Norwich, 1988).

Hogarty, Patrick, The Old Toughs: A Brief History of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, 2^nd Battalion (Dublin, Private publication, 2001).

Horne, John, ed., Our War: Ireland and the Great War (Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, 2008).

Kipling, Rudyard, The Irish Guards in the Great War, Vol.1. (London, Macmillan,1923).

Laird, Frank, Personal Experiences of the Great War (Dublin, Eason, 1925).

Lucy, John, There’s a Devil in the Drum (London, London and Naval Military Press, 1992).

Johnstone, Thomas, Orange, Green and Khaki (Dublin, Gill and Macmillan, 1992).

McCance, Captain S., History of the Royal Munster Fusiliers: Volume II – from 1862-1922 (Aldershot, Gale and Polden,1927).

MacDonagh, Michael, The Irish at the Front (London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1916).

MacDonagh, Michael, The Irish on the Somme, (London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1917).

Orr, Phillip, The Road to the Somme (Belfast, Blackstaff Press, 1987).

Orr, Philip, Field of Bones: An Irish Division at Gallipoli (Dublin, Lilliput Press, 2006).

Quinn, Anthony P., Wigs and Guns: Irish Barristers in the Great War (Dublin, Four Courts Press, 2006).

Rickard, Jesse Louisa, The Story of the Munsters at Etreux, Festubert, Rue du Bois and Hulluch (London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1918).

Robertson, David, Deeds not Words: Irish Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen in Two World Wars (Multyfarnham, Privately published, 1998).

Taylor, James. W., The 1^st Royal Irish Rifles in the Great War (Dublin, Four Courts Press, 2002).

Taylor, James. W., The 2^nd Royal Irish Rifles in the Great War (Dublin, Four Courts Press, 2005).

Walker, G.A.C., The Book of the 7^th Service Battalion – The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers – from Tipperary to Ypres (Dublin, Brindley, 1920).

Whitton, Col.F.E., The History of the Prince of Wales Leinster Regiment, Vol.2 (Aldershot, Gale and Polden, 1926).

Wyly, Col. H.C., Crown and Company – The Historical Record of the 2^nd Battalion, Royal Dublin Fusiliers, vol.2 1911-1922 (London, Humphreys, 1923)

Wylly, Col.H.C., Neill’s Blue Caps – Vol.3, 1914-1922 (Aldershot, Gale and Polden, 1923).

A number of counties (Cork, Louth, Cavan, Dublin, Donegal etc) have also now published ‘Roll of Honour’ books with information on those who died from that county.

GOOD LUCK – THERE’S A LOT OF INFORMATION OUT THERE AND YOU CAN ACCESS MOST OF IT WITHOUT LEAVING THE HOUSE

Useful (but often unreadable) regimental histories of WW1 for those tracing their ancestors’ involvement in the Great War

Posted on May 8, 2014 by Myles Dungan

Regimental War Diaries – available in The National Archive (formerly the PRO) in Kew, London.

General Works

Bartlett, Thomas and Jeffrey, Keith, A Military History of Ireland (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1996).

Bredin, General A.E.C., A History of the Irish Soldier (Belfast, Century Books, 1987).

Divisional and Regimental histories