Essex man in Royal Munster Fusiliers

Hocus Focus

I'm researching my grandfather on my mother's side, whose Medal Index Card contains three regimental numbers; Royal Munster Fusiliers, Royal Corps of Lancers and written in, between the lines, Labour Corps. I know he served in Gallipoli (6th Battalion I think)from Aug 1917 and when I was a child he told me that what he did there was driving mules, but the only mule-drivers I can find records of were the Zionist Mule Corps. While the 6/RMF went on in early 1916 to Salonika, my grandfather found himself in the public toilet near Nelson's Pillar, firing a Lewis gun at the GPO. I have no idea what formation he was attached to at this point, or subsequently, when he seems to have been part of the garrison of Wexford Barracks.
Can anyone give me any ideas as to how a man from Essex would have been in the Munsters, how he would have been returned to the UK rather than sent to Salonika and how he would have endedup in Dublinin1916 after machine gun training?

Snickers Man

Hocus Focus wrote: »

I know he served in Gallipoli (6th Battalion I think)from Aug 1917 and when I was a child he told me that what he did there was driving mules, but the only mule-drivers I can find records of were the Zionist Mule Corps. While the 6/RMF went on in early 1916 to Salonika, my grandfather found himself in the public toilet near Nelson's Pillar, firing a Lewis gun at the GPO. I have no idea what formation he was attached to at this point, or subsequently, when he seems to have been part of the garrison of Wexford Barracks.
Can anyone give me any ideas as to how a man from Essex would have been in the Munsters,

For a start I think you have made a mistake, probably just a miskey, by saying he served in Gallipoli from 1917. The Allies were long gone from there by then.

The 6th Battalion of the Munsters was formed in Kerry, one of the four natural constituent counties of the RMF, the others being Cork, Limerick and Clare. They were assigned to the 10th Irish Division, but were not at full strength, as was fairly common for that division, at first and were posted shortly afterwards to England. .

After the initial influx of eager recruits into the 36th Ulster Division (aka the UVF) and the 16th Irish Division (containing a lot of Irish Volunteers) there was a drop off in enthusiasm, especially in the southern part of the country.

Therefore, many of the battalions of the 10th Irish Division were topped up while on garrison duty in England with soldiers who were surplus to requirements in other "English" regiments.

There was a fair number, therefore, of Englishmen who may or may not have had any Irish connections at all, in the "Irish" regiments of the 10th Division. It is not at all surprising that an Essex man found himself in one such in 1915. And one battalion of the 10th Irish made no claims to be Irish in any way. The 10th Hampshires were very much a locally recruited Hampshire regiment.

A glance at the names of those killed while serving in the battalions that made up the 10th Irish Division at Gallipoli show a fair number of names that simply did not exist in Ireland at the time, according to the census taken a mere four years before and now accessible online. Nevertheless, Irishmen made up the majority, at least two thirds by my inexpert rule of thumb estimates, of the battalions of Irish regiments that served at Galipoli.

The fact that your Essex grandfather was one of the remaining third is not remarkable. As to how he came to be in Dublin at Easter 1916, sorry. No idea.

Hocus Focus

Thanks, Snickers Man. Yes, miskey, I meant 1915.
I hadn't realised that the Irish regiments were "diluted" in that way. As for his record, I'll have to keep searching.

johnny_doyle

what was his name/number?

I'd take a guess and say he'd been wounded in Gallipoli and sent back to Dublin/Ireland. Later posting to Labour Corps possibly an indication no longer fit for front line service.

A small selection born/enlisted Essex who were killed with the RMF (from UK Soldiers Died in the Great War)

Name: Walter Henry Bradley
Birth Place: Southchurch, Southend, Essex
Residence: Southend
Death Date: 21 Aug 1915
Death Place: Gallipoli
Enlistment Place: Southend
Rank: Private
Regiment: Royal Munster Fusiliers
Battalion: 1st Battalion
Regimental Number: 5796
Type of Casualty: Killed in action
Theatre of War: Balkan Theatre
Comments: Formerly 6419, Lancers Of The Line.

Name: George Baker
Birth Place: S. Woodford, Essex
Residence: S. Woodford
Death Date: 1 May 1915
Death Place: Gallipoli
Enlistment Place: Southampton
Rank: Private
Regiment: Royal Munster Fusiliers
Battalion: 1st Battalion
Regimental Number: 9238
Type of Casualty: Killed in action


Name: John Booth
Birth Place: Colchester, Essex
Residence: Colchester
Death Date: 1 Jul 1919
Death Place: Home
Enlistment Place: Colchester
Rank: Private
Regiment: Royal Munster Fusiliers
Battalion: 2nd Battalion
Regimental Number: 20277
Type of Casualty: Died of wounds
Theatre of War: Home
Comments: Formerly 13902, Dorset Regt.


Name: Frederick Joseph Brown
Birth Place: Beddingfield, Ipswich, Suffolk
Death Date: 31 Aug 1916
Death Place: France and Flanders
Enlistment Place: Southend, Essex
Rank: Private
Regiment: Royal Munster Fusiliers
Battalion: 1st Battalion
Regimental Number: 5788
Type of Casualty: Killed in action
Theatre of War: Western European Theatre
Comments: Formerly 7602, Lancers Of The Line.

Name: Bernard Bright Carford
Birth Place: Romford, Essex
Residence: Chigwell Row, Essex
Death Date: 22 Mar 1918
Death Place: France and Flanders
Enlistment Place: Ashford, Kent
Rank: Private
Regiment: Royal Munster Fusiliers
Battalion: 1st Battalion
Regimental Number: 15074
Type of Casualty: Killed in action
Theatre of War: Western European Theatre
Comments: Formerly 4053, E. Kent Regt.

Name: Sidney Evans
Birth Place: Walthamstow, Essex
Residence: Dalston, Middx.
Death Date: 29 Aug 1915
Death Place: Gallipoli
Enlistment Place: Shoreditch, Middx.
Rank: L Sergeant
Regiment: Royal Munster Fusiliers
Battalion: 6th Battalion
Regimental Number: 3027
Type of Casualty: Died of wounds
Theatre of War: Balkan Theatre
Comments: Formerly 14167, Wilts Regt.

Fratton Fred

When my great grandfather joined the army in 1898, he walked down the road to the local barracks and signed up

At the time, the resident garrison was the Enniskillen fusilliers, so a man from Portsmouth with no connection to Ireland, ended up getting seriously injured in the battle for Tugela Heights fighting in the 5th (Irish) brigade.

Hocus Focus

Ihad forgotten about this thread and only rediscovered it now.:(

Yes, I subsequently learned from my cousin in Essex that he had actually been wounded (in the upper thigh/posterior area - explained why he had a kind of bandy-legged walk!).

I have deduced that he would have been evacuated to hospital in either Cyprus or Alexandria, (and hence might have been aboard RHS Brittannic, sistership of RMS Titanic!), before being shipped back to the UK, i.e.Ireland