Military Monday: Remembrance Day Posts

Prowse Point Military Cemetery, Belgium.

Sunday 11 November 2012 marks the 94th anniversary of Armistice Day. In Canada, each year the eleventh day of the eleventh month is marked as Remembrance Day, the day on which to honour the memory of those who made the ultimate sacrifice. Once again this year, in the days leading up to 11 November, in honour of those members of my family who served and died in military service during World War One, I will be posting Remembrance Posts. Beginning today, the first in this series of posts details the history of William Dunne (click for link), my paternal great granduncle, and the first member of our family to fall on the battlefields of Europe. Tomorrow's post will be a tribute to a relatively recent addition to my extended family tree, William Pell. Although I am still seeking further information about William, my maternal grandfather's cousin, nonetheless I thought it was fitting to include a tribute to a young man who gave his life at the age of 23 in service of the Dublin Fusiliers. Thursday's post is an updated version of the story of Thomas Michael Kettle, the politician, economics professor and poet, who seemed an unlikely candidate for the theatre of war. He was the last and probably best known member of my family to perish on the battlefield, dying on the Somme in September of 1916.

Each of these men was Irish-born and resided in Ireland, yet fought as a member of the British Forces, a service of duty which sometimes stood in stark opposition to the Irish Nationalist sentiments within his respective family. This apparent contradiction existed within many Irish families. Over 210,000 Irishmen volunteered for service with the British forces during WW1, in addition to the 50,000 Irishmen already serving in the regular army and reserve at the outbreak of the war. Many of those Irish who were fortunate enough to return from the battlegrounds of Europe came home disillusioned, and went on to fight against the British as part of the Irish Volunteers. Many did not return at all. According to a report issued by the office of the Taoiseach (the Irish equivalent to Prime Minister), at least 35,000 Irish citizens died fighting for Britain. The National War Memorial in Ireland puts the number at 49,400. From the Dublin recruits alone, some 5,000 of the 25,000 men who enlisted lost their lives on the battlefields of Europe.

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