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Tag: WW1
Alan Malcher- Military Historian, Broadcaster, author and Veteran (www.alanmalcher.com)
Mary O’Connell Bianconi MM (Research by the Combined Irish Regiments Associations)
Mary O’Connell Biaconi MM (Combined Irish Regiments Associations)
Mary was born into a prominent family in County Clare, Ireland in 1896.
Known to family and friends as “Molly” she attended a convent school in Limerick followed by finishing schools in Paris and Belgium.
When war came like thousands of other women she wanted to play her part and in 1915 joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD), formed to provide nursing and medical care to the military.
An important role undertaken by the VAD was driving Ambulances carrying the wounded from dressing stations close to the front back to Hospitals near the coast. Such work regularly put the drivers in harm’s way being within range of enemy artillery.
At the age of 21, having completed her medical training and been taught how to drive and maintain an ambulance Molly arrived in France in August 1917.
The historian Lyn MacDonald described girls like Molly thus
“She’s called Elsie or Gladys or Dorothy, her ankles are swollen, her feet are aching, her hands reddened and rough. She has little money, no vote, and has almost forgotten what it feels like to be really warm. She sleeps in a tent. She is twenty-three. She is the daughter of a clergyman, a lawyer, or a prosperous businessman, and has been privately educated and groomed to be a lady. She wears the unbecoming uniform of a VAD. She is on active service and as much a part of the war as Tommy”.
Molly soon transferred to the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry but continued to drive ambulances.
It was during the German offensives in the spring of 1918 that Molly and her fellow drivers faced the greatest danger as they continually ventured close to the advancing enemy to evacuate the wounded.
On the night of 18-19May 1918 heavy German bombing raids in the St Omer area caused extensive damage and many casualties. Rather than taking shelter, Molly and her comrades busied themselves rescuing and evacuating the wounded while bombs continued to fall.
For her actions that night Molly was awarded the Military Medal (MM).
“She worked for long hours under fire in the brave attempt to save the lives of those who had been buried in caves, dugouts and hospitals that had been hit.”
According to a document in the National Archives during the First World War the extraordinary women of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry were awarded 135 decorations including 18 Military Medals; 32 French Croix de Guerre; one Legion d’Honneur, and 11 Mentions in Despatches.
Molly survived the war and returned to Civilian life. She married in December 1919 and set up and ran a Hotel with her husband.
At the start of the Second World War she once again joined the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry and later became a Junior Commander in the Auxiliary Territorial Service for the duration of the war.
Molly died in Guildford, Surrey in 1968 aged 72.
Above written by The Combined Irish Regiments Association.
Irish Soldiers: the Battle of Mons during the Great War of 1914 to 1918.
The Battle of Mons was the first major action of the British Expeditionary Force of the First World War. It was a subsidiary action of the Battle of the Frontiers, during which the allies fought the Germans on the French border.
I don’t know the source of this short film documentary and consequently I am unable to credit the film maker.
Four recipients of the Victoria Cross during the Great War. IWM image dated 1917.
From left to right:
Private Michael O’Rourke VC, MM 7th (1st British Columbia) Battalion Canadian Expeditionary Force, awarded the VC in France on 15/17 April 1917.
Sergeant James Ockendon VC,MM of the 1st Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers, awarded the VC in Belgium on 4 October 1917.
Private William Boynton Butler VC, 17th Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment, awarded the VC in France on 6 August 1917.
Corporal Ernest Alfred Egerton VC, 16th Battalion Sherwood Foresters, Awarded the VC in Belgium on 20 September 1917.
The Great War: Frank Brent was an NCO with the Australian Imperial Army and fought at Gallipoli.
In 1961 British veterans of the Great War retuned to Ypres to meet the German veterans they fought during the battle. (BBC archives)
Private John Condon 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Regiment during WW1
6322 Private John Condon of the 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Regiment was killed in action at the age of 14 on 24 May 1915 and is believed to be the youngest battle casualty of the Great War. He is buried at the British war grave at Poelcapelle, Belgium
Alan Malcher
Two Minutes’ Silence by Charles Spencelayh 1928.
Two Minutes’ Silence by Charles Spencelayh 1928.
The clock marks the eleventh hour as the elderly gentleman prays for the son lost in the war, whose portrait hangs above the clock and a jar of garden flowers that have been arranged in his memory. Spencelayh was staunchly patriotic and deeply affected by the war. (Charles Spencelayh 1865-1958)
John Ripley VC, Black Watch during WW1.
Corporal Ripley was the first man to climb an enemy barricade before leading his section under fire through enemy barbed wire (entanglements) and held the position until all his men were either dead or wounded during which he was badly wounded in the head and at the age of 47 is listed as the oldest recipient of the VC during the Great War. After being classified unfit for active service Ripley became a recruiting sergeant in Edinburgh. He was discharged in 1919 and returned to his trade as a slater. In 1933 he was fixing slates when he fell from a ladder and injured his spine and later died in hospital.
Alan Malcher