HEADSTONES TO to commemorate 43 Irish men and women who fought in various wars and are buried in unmarked graves at Glasnevin Cemetery are to be erected next month.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission has paid for the headstones in accordance with its policy that everybody who fought for the British army in either of the two World Wars should receive a lasting memorial.
The Glasnevin Trust, which manages the cemetery, is appealing for the relatives of those involved to come to an unveiling ceremony on Remembrance Day, November 11th.
Each of the 41 men and two women fought but were not killed in the wars ranging from the Boer War to the second World War. All of them died as a result of illnesses or injury in the aftermath of war.
The Glasnevin Trust’s historian Shane MacThomais said the fact that these soldiers did not die in direct combat only added to the poignancy of their story. “It is terrible sad that so many of these people died after the war ended,” he said.
He has researched each of the histories of the soldiers involved using the UK’s National Archives in Kew, London.
Edward Bolger (36) fought in both the Boer War and the first World War. He was wounded in the head in Ypres, lost his left eye and ear and was paralysed in the hand. He was repatriated to Dublin but drowned in the river Liffey on Christmas Eve 1916.
William Coleman (45) was killed when he fell from a train in Rugby, England, returning home to bury a child who had died. A widower, he left two orphans who were not entitled to a military pension because their father had not died in combat.
The cause of death for Edward Heffernan (30), who died in January 1919, was given as exhaustion. He had his upper jaw and tongue shot off at the Battle of the Somme. “He died probably because there was no penicillin. His body just gave out,” said MacThomais. Others died of influenza, pneumonia, consumption and other illnesses.
The strangest death is that of 55-year-old Englishman Robert Glaister. He was stationed at Cobh, Co Cork, and was on shore leave in Dublin when he caught up in the Easter Rising. He was shot by an Irish-born British soldier at a checkpoint.
The soldier, John Whyte, was later court martialed and found guilty of manslaughter. He, too, is buried in Glasnevin.
The veterans were buried in the cemetery in “unpurchased graves”, some because they had no living relatives, others because their families could not afford to erect a headstone.
The project was started last year when the graves of four ex-servicemen were identified and headstones erected.
We will remember them: appeal for relatives to attend ceremony
Pte Robert Abbott (age n/a) Army Service Corps, died 1917, rheumatism
Pte Joseph Bannister (19) Royal Air Force, 1919, influenza
Pte Joseph Berry (28) Royal Dublin Fusiliers, 1919, influenza
Pte Edward Bolger (36) South Lancashire Regiment, 1916, drowned
Gnr John Burke (29) Royal Garrison Artillery, 1919, consumption
Cpl Edward Byrne (age n/a) Royal Dublin Fusiliers, 1918, influenza
Sgt Richard Byrne (40) Royal Irish Fusiliers, nephritis
Gnr Thomas Campbell (28) Royal Artillery,1947, tuberculosis
Pioneer Michael Carroll (45) Royal Engineers, 1919, pneumonia
Fireman James Carter (age n/a), Merchantile Marine Reserve, 1919, heart failure
Pte Kathleen Cartwright (age n/a) Auxiliary Territorial, 1943, heart failure
Sgt Patrick Casey (30) Royal Irish Fusiliers, 1919, consumption
Pioneer William Coleman (45) Royal Engineers, 1915, fell from train
Mrs Anne Connor Women’s RAF (36), 1919, influenza
Sgt Joseph Conroy (36), Royal Warwickshire Regiment, 1917, dropsy
Pte Alfred Coulahan (33) Labour Corps, 1919, heart disease
Aircraftman James Daly RAF Volunteer Reserve, 1946, tuberculosis
Gnr Christopher Dennis, Royal Garrison Artillery, 1917, bronchitis
Pte Richard Domican (28) Royal Army Medical Corps, 1915, pneumonia
Rifleman John Donovan (age n/a) Royal Irish Rifles, 1920, phthisis
Lance Cpl James Doran (33), Royal Dublin Fusiliers, 1918, heart failure
Pte Edward Doyle (27) Royal Dublin Fusiliers, 1918, haemorrhage
Pte William Doyle (34), Leinster Regiment, dropsy 1919
Gnr John Duggan (40), Royal Garrison Artillery, 1919, haemorrhage
Pte Patrick Duignan (21), Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, 1920, tuberculosis
Stoker Denis Dunne (43), Royal Naval Reserve, 1918, consumption
Sgt Patrick Dunne (19), Royal Dublin Fusiliers, 1916, meningitis
Pte Michael Dunne (56) Royal Sussex Regiment, 1944, tuberculosis
Pte John Ellis (30), Royal Dublin Fusiliers, 1914, pneumonia
Rifleman Michael Ennis (age n/a) Royal Irish Rifles, 1916, haemoptysis
Pte Christopher Farrell, (age n/a) Northumberland Fusiliers, 1918, influenza
Lance Cpl Patrick Farrell (31), Connaught Rangers, 1915, wounded in France
Lance Cpl Patrick Flanagan (23), Royal Dublin Fusiliers, 1918, lung disease
Pte Henry Flynn (35) South Lancashire Regiment, 1914, septic poisoning after leg amputation
Robert Glaister (55), Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, 1916, shot in Amiens Street
Pte Michael Gunning (35), Royal Irish Regiment, 1918, consumption
Gnr Michael Hayes (36), Royal Garrison Artillery, 1918, decline
Pte Edward Heffernan (30), Royal Irish Regiment, 1919, exhaustion
Cpl Joseph Holmes (age n/a) Royal Army Service Corps, 1919, heart failure
Pte James Hutton (26), Leinster Regiment, 1917, phthsis
Lance Cpl Richard Hyland (age n/a), Royal Defence Corps, 1918, pneumonia ricketts
Pte Michael Johnston (age n/a), Royal Irish Fusiliers, 1918, consumption
Pte John Kearns (27), Royal Army Veterinary Corps), 1919, tuberculosis
