On July 1-2, 1915, in Gallipoli, Turkey, when, owing to hostile bombing, some of his troops had retired from a sap, Sergeant Somers remains alone there until a party brings up bombs. He then climbs over into the Turkish trench and bombs the Turks with great effect. Later on, he advances into the open under heavy fire and holds back the enemy by throwing bombs into their flank until a barricade has been established. During this period, he frequently runs to and from his trenches to obtain fresh supplies of bombs.
In a letter to his father, Somers writes:
“I beat the Turks out of our trench single-handed and had four awful hours at night. The Turks swarmed in from all roads, but I gave them a rough time of it, still holding the trench. It is certain sure we are beating the Turks all right. In the trench I came out of, it was shocking to see the dead. They lay, about three thousand Turks, in front of our trenches, and the smell was absolutely chronic. You know when the sun has been shining on those bodies for three or four days it makes a horrible smell; a person would not mind if it was possible to bury them. But no, you dare not put your nose outside the trench, and if you did, you would be a dead man.”
Somers had previously been severely wounded during the Retreat from Mons in August 1914.
The Most Reverend William MacNeely, the Bishop of Raphoe from 1923 until 1963, is born in County Donegal on December 28, 1889. He has the distinction of being Raphoe’s first completely Roman-educated bishop.
MacNeely is the son of a butcher in Donegal Town. He is educated at the High School in Letterkenny, and in Rome from 1906–12. He is ordained to the priesthood on February 4, 1912, and upon his return to Ireland is appointed to the staff of St. Eunan’s College.
On July 27, 1923, at the comparatively young age of 35, MacNeely is ordained as Bishop of Raphoe in succession to Bishop Patrick O’Donnell who had been appointed coadjutorArchbishop of Armagh the previous year. In this role he is responsible for the completion of the Cathedral of St. Eunan and St. Columba in Letterkenny and negotiating with Harry Clarke to finish the work of glazing the cathedral.
Keen to develop religious life in his diocese, MacNeely invites the Capuchin Franciscans to the Creeslough area in 1930 to a site that becomes known as Ards Priory.
In a diocese where farming is the main industry, MacNeely maintains a strong interest in farming, being himself a successful breeder of Shorthorn cattle.
In 2008, it is reported that MacNeely was one of the two Irish episcopal coordinators who worked alongside “an intelligence-gathering secret service” set up in 1948 to monitor any sign of a “Communist takeover” of Ireland.
In 1953, MacNeely is a member of the inaugural Episcopal Commission for Emigrants reflecting the high levels of migration that afflict his diocese and wider Donegal for much of the twentieth century.
MacNeely serves as Bishop for over forty years, attending the early sessions of the Second Vatican Council. Shortly before his death, he is appointed Assistant to the Papal Throne. He dies on December 11, 1963, and is interred beside the Cathedral of St. Eunan and St. Columba.
At dawn on the morning of November 20, 1917, the 16th (Irish) Division of the British Army assaults an area of the German lines known as “Tunnel Trench,” named for an elaborate tunnel system that runs along it. The attack is meant as a diversion for the main attack, about eight miles to the southeast at Cambrai, France, where six infantry and two cavalry divisions of the British Expeditionary Force, with additional support from fourteen squadrons of the Royal Flying Corps, join the British Tank Corps in a surprise attack on the German lines.
By autumn 1917, three years into World War I, continuous shelling and lack of drainage has transformed the Ypres Salient, on the Western Front, into a waterlogged quagmire. In Ireland, meanwhile, a month earlier, Eamon de Valera becomes president of Sinn Féin and decides to push for an independent Irish republic. Despite the growing political turmoil at home, in France, on firm ground near the town of Cambrai, the British Army’s 16th (Irish) Division again proves to be formidable adversaries for the Germans.
According to the divisional historian, at Cambrai, the “swift and successful operation by 16th Division was a model of attack with a limited objective.” In addition to securing 3,000 yards of trench, 635 prisoners are captured from the German army’s 470th and 471st Regiments and 330 German bodies are counted in the trenches. More importantly, though, the mayhem caused by the diversionary assault contributes greatly to the initial success of the Cambrai offensive, though the offensive eventually sputters, dragging the war into 1918.
Cambrai becomes the field of operations when the British Commander-in-Chief, Field MarshalDouglas Haig, recognising that it is impossible to launch further military operations in the Ypres sector, seeks a new battlefield where he hopes success can be achieved before year’s end. Lieutenant ColonelJohn Fuller of the Tank Corps and GeneralJulian Byng, commander of the Third Army, recommend that a massed assault by 400 tanks should be mounted across the firm, chalky ground to the southwest of Cambrai. Haig adopts this proposal, confident that the tanks can punch a hole through the mighty Hindenburg Line and allow his underused Cavalry Divisions to break through to the enemy rear.
In order to create maximum confusion among the Germans, Sir Aylmer Haldane, commander of VI Corps, is ordered to stage a diversionary attack. The area selected for the assault is about eight miles to the northwest of Cambrai, where the British line passes through the villages of Bullecourt and Fontaine-lès-Croisilles. The units select to make this subsidiary attack are 3rd Army and 16th (Irish) Division.
The defences of the Hindenburg Line opposite VI Corps positions consists of Tunnel Trench, a heavily defended front-line trench, with a second, or support trench, some 300 yards behind. The whole area is scattered with concrete machine gun forts, or Mebus, similar to those that had decimated the 16th (Irish) Division at the Battle of Langemarck three months earlier.
Tunnel Trench is so called because it has a tunnel 30 or 40 feet below ground along its entire length, with staircase access from the upper level every 25 yards. The entire tunnel has electric lighting, and side chambers provide storage space for bunks, food, and ammunition. Demolition charges are set that can be triggered from the German rear in order to prevent the defences from falling into British hands.
The 16th (Irish) Division, attacking on a three-brigade front, is assigned the task of capturing a 2,000-yard section of the trench network. On the right flank of the Irishmen, 3rd Division’s 9th Brigade is detailed to capture an additional 800 yards. One unusual feature of the attack is that there is to be no preliminary bombardment as surprise is the key to the success of the operation. Once the assault begins, however, 16th (Irish) Division’s artillery, reinforced with guns from the 34th Division, is to open a creeping barrage upon the German positions.
The morning of the advance, November 20, is overcast, with low visibility. At 6:20 a.m., the Divisional 18 pounder-field guns open fire, and the leading assault companies spring from their jump-off positions. At the same time, Stokes mortars begin to lay a smoke barrage upon the German trenches in imitation of a gas attack. This deception proves successful, as many German troops don cumbersome gas masks and retreat to the underground safety of the tunnel, thus leaving the exposed portion of the trench undefended.
On the left flank, the attack of the 49th Brigade is launched by 2nd Royal Irish Regiment and 7/8th Royal Irish Fusiliers. They quickly cross the 200 yards of no-man’s-land and reach the enemy frontline just as the barrage lifts. Resistance above ground is minimal, and storming parties began the task of flushing the Germans from the tunnel with Mills bombs and bayonets.
Once the tunnel is secure, sappers, acting on information obtained by 7th Leinster Regiment’s intelligence officer, cut the leads connecting the demolition charges. Supporting companies then press on to capture Tunnel Support Trench, while Divisional support units rapidly wire and made secure the new defensive front in anticipation of German counterattacks.
Only on the extreme left flank does 49th Brigade encounter any serious opposition. In this sector, Company “B” of the 7/8th Royal Irish Fusiliers suffers heavy losses inflicted by concentrated machine gun fire from Mebus Flora. Nearly one-hour elapses before resistance from this strong point can be overcome.
In the centre, 10th and 2nd Royal Dublin Fusiliers head the attack of the 48th Brigade. The advance here is so rapid that the Irish find many Germans still wearing gas masks and unable to fight. Two more Mebus, Juno and Minerva, are stormed and many more prisoners taken, particularly by 10th Royal Dublin Fusiliers which captures 170 Germans.
After capturing their assigned section of Tunnel Trench, two companies of Rangers press forward to assault the strong points known as Mars and Jove. The Division had learned from the disastrous frontal attack made at Langemarck, and so the Rangers work around to the rear before pressing home with the bayonet.
Unfortunately, 3rd Division fails in its attempt to capture the trench network immediately to the right of 16th (Irish) Division, and the flank of the Connaught Rangers is thus exposed to a savage counterattack. The Rangers ferociously engage the Germans and use captured “potato masher” grenades brought up from the tunnel to great effect. Eventually, overwhelming numbers begin to tell, and “A” Company is forced to yield Jove and fall back upon “B” Company, which is holding Mars.
These two isolated companies doggedly hold their ground for several hours. The situation only improves when the Divisional pioneer battalion, the 11th Hampshire Regiment, digs a communication trench across the fire-swept no-man’s-land, thereby allowing the support companies of the Rangers to come to the aid of their comrades. The front is finally stabilised three days later when 7th Leinster Regiment recaptures and consolidates Jove and successfully assaults the untaken section of Tunnel Trench.
On the first day of the Battle of Cambrai, General Byng’s eight attacking Divisions achieve complete surprise and pierce the Hindenburg Line, driving the Germans back four miles toward Cambrai itself. Having captured 8,000 prisoners and 100 guns for the loss of only 5,000 British casualties, it is small wonder that church bells are sounded in celebration in Britain for the first time during the war.
Unfortunately, Byng lacks sufficient reserves to exploit, or consolidate his success, and German counterattacks, launched by some 20 Divisions, recover most of the lost ground. Although the battle ultimately ends in failure for the British, the willingness to employ new weaponry and tactics at Cambrai and during the diversionary assault upon Tunnel Trench, points the way to the final victory in 1918.
Although the capture of Tunnel Trench contributes greatly to the early success at Cambrai, it proves costly as VI Corps suffers 805 casualties. Most of these occur close to Jove Mebus, where the Connaught Rangers had engaged the enemy in hand-to-hand combat.
Perhaps an idea of the ferocious nature of this form of trench warfare can be gleaned from Father William Doyle, chaplain of the 8th Royal Irish Fusiliers, who once remarks, “We should have had more prisoners, only a hot-blooded Irishman is a dangerous customer when he gets behind a bayonet and wants to let daylight through everybody.”
(From: “Tunnel Trench: 16th (Irish) Division Clears the Way at Cambrai,” by Kieron Punch, posted by The Wild Geese, http://www.thewildgeese.irish, January 18, 2013 | Pictured: Troops from the Royal Irish Regiment about to go into action at Cambrai)
The Battle of the Somme ends on November 18, 1916. This dreadful battle claims more Irish lives in combat than any other battle in history.
On the first day of battle alone, July 1, 1916, twenty thousand soldiers of the British Army are killed and forty thousand are wounded. The 36th (Ulster) Division suffers an estimated 5,500 casualties, almost all of whom are drawn from what is now Northern Ireland. Nearly 2,000 Irish soldiers are killed in the first few hours of fighting following a morning mist that poet Siegfried Sassoon references as “of the kind commonly called heavenly.”
The Battle of the Somme, also known as the Somme Offensive, is a battle in World War I fought by the armies of the British Empire and the French Third Republic against the German Empire. It takes place between July 1 and November 18, 1916, on both sides of the upper reaches of the river Somme in France. The battle is intended to hasten a victory for the Allies and is the largest battle of World War I on the Western Front. More than 3 million men fight in this battle and one million men are wounded or killed, making it one of the bloodiest battles in human history.
The French and British commit themselves to an offensive on the Somme during Allied discussions at Chantilly, Oise, in December 1915. The Allies agree upon a strategy of combined offensives against the Central Powers in 1916, by the French, Russian, British and Italian armies, with the Somme offensive as the Franco-British contribution. Initial plans call for the French army to undertake the main part of the Somme offensive, supported on the northern flank by the Fourth Army of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). When the Imperial German Army begins the Battle of Verdun on the Meuse on February 21, 1916, French commanders divert many of the divisions intended for the Somme and the “supporting” attack by the British becomes the principal effort.
The first day on the Somme, July 1, sees a serious defeat for the German Second Army, which is forced out of its first position by the French Sixth Army, from Foucaucourt-en-Santerre south of the Somme to Maricourt on the north bank and by the Fourth Army from Maricourt to the vicinity of the Albert–Bapaume Road. The first day on the Somme is, in terms of casualties, also the worst day in the history of the British Army, which suffers 57,470 casualties. These occur mainly on the front between the Albert–Bapaume road and Gommecourt, where the attack is defeated, and few British troops reach the German front line. The British troops on the Somme comprise a mixture of the remains of the pre-war standing army, the Territorial Force, and Kitchener’s Army, a force of volunteer recruits including many Pals Battalions, recruited from the same places and occupations.
The battle is notable for the importance of air power and the first use of the tank. At the end of the battle, British and French forces have penetrated 6 miles into German-occupied territory, taking more ground than in any of their offensives since the First Battle of the Marne in 1914. The Anglo-French armies fail to capture Péronne and halt three miles from Bapaume, where the German armies maintain their positions over the winter. British attacks in the Ancre valley resume in January 1917 and force the Germans into local withdrawals to reserve lines in February, before the scheduled retirement to the Siegfriedstellung (Hindenburg Line) begins in March.
Debate continues over the necessity, significance and effect of the battle. David Frum opines that a century later, “‘the Somme’ remains the most harrowing placename” in the history of the British Commonwealth.
(Pictured: Men of the Royal Irish Rifles rest during the opening hours of the Battle of the Somme. July 1, 1916)
Mannock was born on May 24, 1887, to an English father, Edward Mannock, and an Irish mother, Julia Sullivan. His father serves in the British Army and in 1893, deeply in debt and exasperated with civilian life, he re-enlists, and the family moves to Meerut, India when he is five years old. In his early years, he is sickly and develops several ailments. Soon after arriving in Asia, he contracts malaria, narrowly avoiding death. Upon his return to England, he becomes a fervent supporter of Irish nationalism and the Irish Home Rule movement but becomes a member of the Independent Labour Party (ILP).
In 1914, Mannock is working as a telephone engineer in Turkey. After the Ottoman Empire‘s entry into the war on the side of the Central Powers he is interned. Poorly fed and cared for, his health rapidly declines in prison. Dysentery racks his intestines, and he is confined to a small cell. Turkish authorities repatriate him to Britain believing him to be unfit for war service. He recovers and joins the Royal Engineers (RE) and then the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC). He moves services again and in 1916 joins Royal Flying Corps (RFC). After completing his training, he is assigned to No. 40 Squadron RFC. He goes into combat on the Western Front, participating in three separate combat tours. After a slow start he begins to prove himself as an exceptional pilot, scoring his first victory on May 7, 1917.
By February 1918, Mannock has achieved sixteen victories and is appointed a Flight Commander in No. 74 Squadron. He amasses thirty-six more victories from April 12 — June 17, 1918. After returning from leave he is appointed commanding officer of No. 85 Squadron in July 1918, and scores nine more victories that month.
On July 26, Major Mannock offers to help a new arrival, Lt. Donald C. Inglis from New Zealand, obtain his first victory. After shooting down an enemy LVG two-seater behind the German front-line, Mannock is believed to have dived to the crash site to view the wreckage, seemingly breaking one of the unwritten rules of fellow pilots about the hazards of flying low into ground fire. In consequence, while crossing the trenches the fighters are met with a massive volley of ground fire. The engine of his aircraft is hit and immediately catches fire, and shortly thereafter the plane crashes behind German lines. His body is believed to have been found, though this is unproven, about 250 yards (250m) from the wreck of his plane, perhaps thrown, perhaps jumped. The body shows no gunshot wounds although he had vowed to shoot himself if shot down in flames.
The exact cause of Mannock’s death remains uncertain. A year later, after intensive lobbying by Ira Jones and many of his former comrades, he is awarded the Victoria Cross (VC).
Mannock’s name is listed on the Wellingborough War Memorial with the other fallen men from the town and the local Air Training Corps (ATC) unit bears his name – 378 (Mannock) Squadron. Additionally, Mannock Road, a residential street in Wellingborough, is named after him.
On June 24, 1988, a plaque is unveiled at 183 Mill Road, Wellingborough, by top scoring World War II British fighter pilot Air Vice-MarshalJohnnie Johnson. Mannock had lived at that address prior to the war after being befriended by the Eyles family.
Cameron is the son of Captain Ewen Cameron of Scotland and Belinda Smith of County Cavan. He is descended from Clan Cameron of Lochiel. He receives his early education in chemistry and pharmaceutical chemistry in Dublin. In 1852 he is elected professor to the newly founded Dublin Chemical Society while continuing to study medicine at several schools and hospitals in Dublin. In 1854 he goes to Germany where he graduates in philosophy and medicine. While there he publishes his translations of German poems and songs.
Upon his return to Ireland, Cameron becomes scientific advisor to the British government in Ireland in criminal cases and over the years takes part in many notable trials, including those relating to the Phoenix Park Murders. In 1862, he becomes public analyst for the City of Dublin, a position which is later extended to 23 counties in Ireland. In 1867, he is elected Professor of Hygiene in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI). He is also lecturer in chemistry in Dr. Steevens’ Hospital and the Ledwich School of Medicine, succeeding Dr. Maxwell Simpson, and retains these positions until 1874. In 1875 he is appointed Professor of Chemistry at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.
From 1858 to 1863, Cameron is editor and part proprietor of the Agricultural Review, in which he writes hundreds of articles on various subjects. In 1860–62, he is also editor of the Dublin Hospital Gazette and afterward publishes many reports on public health to the Dublin Journal of Medical Science. At this time, he is in contact with many agricultural associations both in Ireland and abroad and receives a number of awards and tributes.
In 1874, Cameron becomes Co-Medical Officer of Health for Dublin Corporation and two years later becomes Chief Medical Officer. Being in charge of the Public Health Department of Dublin City means that he is always in the public eye, and due to the level of poverty and disease in the city at the time his work is cut out for him. He makes many recommendations for improving the sanitation of dwellings and sees to it that unsanitary housing is either improved or closed down. He publishes numerous sanitary reports, papers on hygiene, the social life of the very poor and proper eating habits, those of the very poor in particular. On the other hand, he is in a position to meet the major figures of the day, from the monarchy and the government downward. He is a member of several clubs in the city and dines with local and visiting celebrities alike, which he describes in his reminiscences.
In 1884, Cameron becomes vice-president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland, and the following year becomes president. He is knighted in 1885 in consideration of “his scientific researches, and his services in the cause of public health.” In 1886, he publishes his History of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, and of the Irish Schools of Medicine. This work contains nearly 300 biographies of the most eminent medical men in Ireland.
Cameron marries Lucie Macnamara of Dublin in 1862, who dies in the early 1880s. They have eight children. His eldest son, Captain Charles J. Cameron, dies in a boating accident in Athlone in 1913, while another son, Lieutenant Ewen Henry Cameron, shoots himself in a train in Newcastle in 1915 while on the way to the Western Front. Two sons, Edwin and Mervyn, die of pulmonary tuberculosis in their 20s.
Cameron is a leading Freemason in Dublin, serving as Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Ireland (1911–20), Deputy Grand Master of the Great Priory of Ireland, Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Council of the 33rd degree (Ancient and Accepted Rite for Ireland). He is first initiated as a member of Fidelity Lodge No. 125 in 1858 and is also a member of the Duke of York Lodge No. 25, serving as its secretary for over 50 years.
Cameron dies at his home on Raglan Road in Dublin on February 27, 1921, and is interred in Mount Jerome Cemetery. At his death he leaves a son, Ernest Stuart Cameron, and two daughters, Lucie Gerrard and Helena Stanley.
Gwynn spends his early childhood in rural County Donegal, which is to shape his later view of Ireland. He attends Brasenose College, Oxford, where, as scholar, in 1884 he is awarded first-class honours in classical moderations and in 1886 literae humaniores. During term holidays he returns to Dublin, where he meets several of the political and literary figures of the day.
After graduating, Gwynn spends ten years from 1886 tutoring as a schoolmaster, for a time in France, which creates a lifelong interest in French culture, as expressed in his Praise of France (1927). By 1896 he has developed an interest in writing, becoming a writer and journalist in London focused on English themes, until he comes into contact with the emerging Irish literary revival, when he serves as secretary of the Irish Literary Society.
This is the beginning of a long and prolific career as a writer covering a wide range of literary genres, from poetry and biographical subjects to general historical works. The eighteenth century is Gwynn’s particular specialism. He writes numerous books on travel and on the topography of his own homeland, as well as on his other interests: wine, eighteenth-century painting and fishing.
Gwynn returns to Ireland in 1904 when he enters politics. In the 1906 Galway Borough by-election he wins a seat for Galway Borough, which he represents as a member of the Irish Parliamentary Party until 1918. During this period, he is active in the Gaelic League and is one of the few Irish MPs to have close links to the Irish literary revival. Along with Joseph Maunsel Hone and George Roberts he founds the Dublin publishing house of Maunsel and Company. He is opposed to the demand for the Irish language to be a compulsory subject for matriculation. He supports the campaign which wins the establishment of a Catholic university when he serves on the Irish University Royal Commission in 1908. During the debate on the third Home Rule Bill, and at the request of his party leader John Redmond, he writes The case for Home Rule (1911) and is in charge of much of the party’s official publicity and its replies to criticism from Sinn Féin.
On the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Gwynn strongly supports Redmond’s encouragement of Irish nationalists and the Irish National Volunteers to support the Allied and British war effort by enlisting in Irish regiments of the Irish Divisions, especially as a means to ensure the implementation of the suspended Home Rule Act at the end of an expectedly short war. Now over fifty, he enlists in January 1915 with the 7th Leinster Regiment in the 16th (Irish) Division. In July he is commissioned as a captain in the 6th (Service) Battalion, Connaught Rangers and serves with them on the Western Front at Messines, the Somme and elsewhere.
Gwynn is one of five Irish Nationalist MPs who enlist and serve in the army, the others being John L. Esmonde, Willie Redmond, William Redmond and D. D. Sheehan, as well as former MP Tom Kettle. Together with Kettle and William Redmond, he undertakes a recruitment drive for the Irish divisions, co-operating with Kettle on a collection of ballads called Battle Songs for the Irish Brigade (1915). He is made a chevalier of the Legion of Honour in July 1915. In 1916, he is appointed to the Dardanelles Commission.
Recalled to Ireland in late 1917 to participate in the Irish Convention chaired by Sir Horace Plunkett, Gwynn sides with the Redmondite faction of the Irish Party in supporting a compromise with the southern unionists in an attempt to reach consensus on a Home Rule settlement which would avoid partition. On the death of Redmond in March 1918, he takes over as leader of the moderate nationalists in the Convention. He opposes the threat of compulsory military service during the Conscription Crisis of 1918, though as a member of the Irish Recruiting Council he continues to support voluntary recruitment, encountering intense opposition led by Sinn Féin.
Gwynn forms the Irish Centre Party in 1919 and stands unsuccessfully as an Independent Nationalist for Dublin University in the 1918 Irish general election. The party merges with Plunkett’s Irish Dominion League to press for a settlement by consent on the basis of dominion status, but Gwynn subsequently breaks with Plunkett due to his willingness to accept partition as a temporary compromise. The polarities which divide Ireland during the Irish War of Independence and Irish Civil War increasingly sideline his brand of moderate cultural nationalism. Although he supports the newly emergent nation, he equally condemns some of the excesses, such as the burning of houses belonging to Free State senators.
Gwynn’s personal life also becomes complicated at this stage and around 1920. He has a romantic association with married artist Grace Henry who is perhaps the best-known female artist in Ireland at the time. During this period, he and Grace travel in France and Italy and at various stages in his life she painted portraits of him including a very distinguished looking one of him in his late 60s or early 70s. Their relationship contributes significantly to the separation of Henry from her artist husband Paul Henry in 1930.
During the 1920s, Gwynn also devotes himself to writing, covering political events as Irish correspondent to The Observer and The Times. Later in his career, he writes some substantial works, and together with his son Denis Gwynn (The Life of John Redmond, 1932) does much to shape the retrospective image and self-justification of John Redmond. In the mid-1930s he authors three books with a connecting theme of fishing with the artist Roy Beddington serving as illustrator: The Happy Fisherman (1936), From River to River (1937), and Two in a Valley (1938).
Gwynn is awarded an honorary D.Litt. by the National University of Ireland in 1940, and a Litt.D. by the University of Dublin in 1945. The Irish Academy of Letters awards him the Gregory Medal in April 1950. In his literary writings he stands for a humanism and tolerance, which qualities, due to political upheavals, were relatively rare in the Ireland of his day.
Gwynn dies on June 11, 1950, at his home in Terenure, Dublin, and is buried at Tallaght Cemetery, south County Dublin.
Gwynn marries his cousin Mary Louisa (d. 1941), daughter of Rev. James Gwynn. She later converts to Catholicism. They have three sons and two daughters who are brought up in her religion, of whom Aubrey (1892–1983) becomes a Jesuit priest and professor of medieval history at University College Dublin (UCD). Their second son, Denis Rolleston (1893–1971), is professor of modern Irish history at University College Cork (UCC).
Gwynn’s brother Edward John (1868–1941) becomes provost of Trinity College and another brother Robert Malcolm becomes its senior dean. His sister Lucy Gwynn is the first woman registrar of Trinity. A third brother, Charles, has a successful career in the British Army and retires as a Major General. Younger brothers Lucius and Jack are noted cricketers.
Hickie attends the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, from 1882 to 1885. He is commissioned into his father’s regiment, the Royal Fusiliers at Gibraltar, in 1885 and serves with them for thirteen years in the Mediterranean, Egypt, and India, during which time he is promoted to captain on November 18, 1892. In 1899 he graduates as captain at the Staff College, Camberley, and is selected when the Second Boer War breaks out as a Special Service Officer in which capacity he acts in various positions of authority and command. He leaves Southampton for South Africa on board the SS Canada in early February 1900 and is promoted from captain of mounted infantry to battalion command as major on March 17, 1900. He is subsequently in command of a corps until eventually at the end of 1900 he is given command of an independent column of all arms. He holds this position for eighteen months. He serves with distinction at the Battle of Bothaville in November 1900 and receives the brevet promotion to lieutenant colonel on November 29, 1900. He serves in South Africa throughout the war, which ends with the Treaty of Vereeniging in June 1902. Four months later he leaves Cape Town on the SS Salamis with other officers and men of the 2nd battalion Royal Fusiliers, arriving at Southampton in late October, when the battalion is posted to Aldershot Garrison. In December 1902 he is elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (FRGS).
After the end of the war in South Africa there follows various staff appointments, the first from December 1902 as deputy-assistant adjutant general for district staff in the Cork district. In 1907 Hickie is back in regimental service in Dublin and Mullingar with the 1st Royal Fusiliers, where he is in command of the regiment for the last two years. From 1909 to 1912 is appointed to the Staff of the 8th Infantry Division in Cork where for four years he is well known in the hunting field and on the polo ground. In May 1912, he is promoted to colonel and becomes Quartermaster General of the Irish Command at Royal Hospital Kilmainham for which he is appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath.
When war is declared, the Staff of the Irish Command becomes automatically the staff of the II Army Corps and accordingly with the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Hickie is promoted to brigadier general and, as part of the British Expeditionary Force in France, takes charge of the Adjutant and Quartermaster-General’s Department during the retreat of the II Corps after the Battle of Mons, to Paris, and during the First Battle of the Marne. In mid-September 1914, he relieves one of the brigadiers in the fighting line as commander of the 13th Brigade (5th Infantry Division) and then commands the 53rd Brigade (18th Infantry Division) until December 1915, when he is ordered home to assume command of the 16th (Irish) Division at Blackburn.
Promoted to major general, Hickie takes over from Lieutenant General Sir Lawrence Parsons. It is politically a highly sensitive appointment which requires the professionalism and political awareness he, fortunately, possesses as the division is formed around a core of Irish National Volunteers in response to Edward Carson‘s Ulster Volunteers. He is much more diplomatic and tactful than his predecessors and speaks of the pride which his new command gives him but does not hesitate to make sweeping changes amongst the senior officers of the Irish Division. After putting the division through intensive training, it leaves under Irish command of which each man takes personal pride. It arrives in December 1915.
In the next two years and four months during which Hickie commands the 16th (Irish) Division, it earns a reputation for aggression and élan and wins many memorials and mentions for bravery in the engagements during the 1916 Battle of Guillemont and the capture of Ginchy, both of which form part of the Battle of the Somme, then during the Battle of Messines, the Third Battle of Ypres and in attacks near Bullecourt in the Battle of Cambrai offensive in November 1917.
During this period the Division makes considerable progress in developing its operational techniques but at a price in losses. The growing shortage of Irish replacement recruits, due to nationalist disenchantment with the war and the absence of conscription in Ireland, is successfully met by Hickie by integrating non-Irish soldiers into the division.
In February 1918, Hickie is invalided home on temporary sick leave, but when in the hospital the German spring offensive begins on March 21, with the result that after his division moves under the command of General Hubert Gough it is practically wiped out and ceases to exist as a division. Although promised a new command, this does not happen before the Armistice in November. He typifies the army’s better divisional commanders, is articulate, intelligent and is competent and resourceful during the BEF’s difficult period 1916–17, laying the foundations for its full tactical success in 1918. He is advanced to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1918.
Hickie retires from the army in 1922, when the six Irish line infantry regiments that have their traditional recruiting grounds in the counties of the new Irish Free State are all disbanded. He identifies himself strongly with the Home Rule Act and says that its scrapping is a disaster and is equally outspoken in condemning the activities of the Black and Tans. In 1925, he is elected as a member of Seanad Éireann, the Irish Free State Senate.
Hickie holds his seat until the Seanad is dissolved in 1936, to be replaced by Seanad Éireann in 1937. He is President of the Area Council (Southern Ireland) of the Royal British Legion from 1925 to 1948. He never marries.
Hickie dies on November 3, 1950, in Dublin and is buried in Terryglass, County Tipperary.
Soon afterwards Hazell transfers to the Royal Flying Corps. In April and May he is assigned to No. 5 Reserve Squadron, based at Castle Bromwich. He is appointed a flying officer on June 5 and survives a severe crash before completing his training. He eventually joins No. 1 Squadron on the Western Front. Flying Nieuport 17 Scouts, he shoots down 20 enemy aircraft between March and August 1917, being appointed a flight commander with the acting rank of captain on May 25, and is awarded the Military Cross on July 26.
After serving as an instructor at the Central Flying School in 1918, Hazell takes command of “A” Flight, No. 24 Squadron, flying the S.E.5a. On August 22, 1918, he shoots down an observation balloon despite its escort of seven Fokker D.VIIs. The escort is led by German ace Ernst Udet, who attacks and riddles Hazell’s petrol tank, propeller, and two longerons with bullets. In spite of this Hazell fights his way back, eyes full of petrol, and lands safely. Udet thinks he has forced the British pilot to crash and actually claims him as his 60th victory. Hazell finishes the war with 43 confirmed kills, the top British surviving ace of the war (excluding Dominion airmen). He is twice awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. On June 11, 1927, he returns to the RAF Depot at Uxbridge and is placed on the retired list on July 20, 1927, at his own request.
In 1944, at the age of 52, Hazell becomes the commander of “D” Company, 24th (Tettenhall) Battalion, South Staffordshire Home Guard during the later part of World War II.
Hazell dies in Newport, County Mayo, on September 4, 1946, and is buried at the BurrishooleChurch of Ireland Cemetery there. In 2014 his grave, which had been largely forgotten and neglected, is restored, repaired, and re-dedicated in a ceremony on August 4, 2014, the 100th anniversary of the declaration of World War I
Marmion is born April 1, 1858, in Dublin, the seventh of nine children of William Marmion and Herminie Marmion (née Cordier). He attends St. Laurence O’Toole’s, a primary school run by the Augustinian Fathers of John’s Lane. On January 11, 1869, he transfers to Belvedere College, where he receives an excellent grounding in Greek and Latin from the Jesuit Fathers. From there, he proceeded in January 1874 to Clonliffe College, where he remains until December 1879, when the new Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. Edward MacCabe, selects him for further theological studies in Rome.
Marmion is in Rome at the Pontifical Irish College, studying theology at the Propaganda College, for eighteen months (December 1879 – July 1881). Although invited by the authorities at Propaganda to present himself for the doctorate degree, he turns down the offer for health reasons, on account of the necessary extra year in Rome which this would entail. On returning to Dublin, he spends the first year as curate in Dundrum parish. This is followed by four years (1882–86) as professor of philosophy at Clonliffe. On October 25, 1886, he receives from the newly appointed Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. William Walsh, his dimissorial letters, granting him permission to join the Benedictine order. On November 21, 1886, he enters the newly founded BelgianMaredsous Abbey, with which, by virtue of the Benedictine vow of stability, he is to be associated for the rest of his life.
The first thirteen years of his monastic life (1886–99) are spent at Maredsous Abbey itself. After an unsuccessful start in the abbey school as a kind of housemaster to the junior boys, he finds his feet within the community through congenial work, notably the teaching of Thomistic philosophy to the junior monks. He also gradually builds up a reputation as a spiritual guide through the exercise of ministry on a small scale in the surrounding area. The next decade (1899–1909) finds him in Leuven as prior and professor of dogmatic theology at Mont César Abbey, which is founded and staffed by Maredsous. This decade provides a wide outlet for his matured spiritual doctrine through his lectures on dogmatic theology in Mont César, his retreats to priests and religious, and his private correspondence. The third and final phase of his monastic life begins when the chapter of Maredsous elects him as its third abbot in 1909.
An invitation is received from the Belgian government from December 1909 to April 1910 to undertake a Benedictine foundation in Katanga, part of the Belgian Congo. In spite of pressure from government quarters the chapter of Maredsous refuses the offer, and Marmion accepts this negative decision. In 1913 the entire community of Anglican Benedictines of Caldey Island, Wales, transfer their allegiance from Canterbury to Rome. Marmion becomes deeply involved in the spiritual and canonical process of the reception of the community into the Catholic church.
The outbreak of World War I ushers in four years of grave anxiety for Marmion. Belgium is not completely occupied but retains sovereignty over an area extending inland about twenty miles to the Ypres Salient. This enables the young monks of Maredsous, for whom Marmion had found a temporary home in Edermine, County Wexford, to travel to and from the Western Front, where they are being called up to serve as stretcher bearers in the Belgian army. He does his utmost to maintain the unity of his community between those who had remained in Maredsous and the Edermine group.
The first of Marmion’s great spiritual books, Christ, the Life of the Soul, appears in 1916, and its phenomenal success has been described as a silent plebiscite. This is followed by Christ in His Mysteries (1919), Christ the Ideal of the Monk (1922), and Sponsa Verbi (1923). The books are able to appear in rapid succession since they are compiled from his existing conference notes.
One final piece of important monastic and ecclesiastical and even political business absorbs much of Marmion’s energies, although strictly speaking it is not of his remit. His strenuous efforts to install Belgian monks in the Abbey of the Dormition on Mount Zion in Jerusalem following the internment (November 1918) of the original German Benedictine community by the victorious British forces are of no avail, the question being finally settled by the reinstallation of the German (Beuronese) monks in 1921.
Marmion dies at Maredsous on January 30, 1923, following a brief illness which originates in a chill and is aggravated by influenza.
Marmion is beatified by Pope John Paul II on September 3, 2000. This is the outcome of a popular reputation for holiness which had increased steadily since his death and the procedures for beatification prompted in 1954 by Mgr. Montini, the future Pope Paul VI. The canonical steps are: diocesan process at Namur (1957–61); examination at Rome of Marmion’s writings (1960–73); a critical biography (1987–94), written by Mark Tierney, OSB, for the Roman process on the ‘heroicity’ of Marmion’s virtues which concluded in June 1999; and finally, an inexplicable cure of cancer through Marmion’s intercession, judged as miraculous by Rome on January 25, 2000.
The originality of Marmion’s spiritual doctrine lay in his truly central emphasis on the doctrine of our adoption as the children of God in baptism. Many of his predecessors had also emphasised this doctrine, but few had made it the focus from which everything radiated and to which everything returned. The second characteristic of Marmion’s teaching, a much more personal trait, is the conviction of authenticity communicated by his writings, of the greatness of our sharing in the sonship of the Word. This makes a deep and lasting impression on the reader and gives an infinitely sacred meaning to the title ‘children of God’ and thereby to the whole of life. The third characteristic of Marmion’s teaching is the simplicity with which the deepest theological truths are presented – truths which preachers often feel their people cannot ‘take,’ and hence are left unsaid. Marmion presents these truths directly from St. John and St. Paul, and not merely in familiar extracts but in the whole sweep of their texts.
(From: “Marmion, Dom Columba” by Placid Murray, Dictionary of Irish Biography, http://www.dib.ie)
seamus dubhghaill 