War – Then and Now

I never met my grandfather. Tom Abbott of Emmet Place died before I was born and a grainy grey photo that my mother kept in her drawer was the only image my young mind could conjure of him. 

A postman, that much I knew, along with some brief remembrances my mother would have on rare occasions.

When researching and building a family tree I learned little more about Tom Abbott the man, but I was able to piece together information about his forebears. 

His grandfather William Kiely lived in the Jenkins Lane and Little Patrick Street area of Waterford City. Like many Waterford citizens of the era he signed up to join the British Army. Originally enlisting in the Connaught Rangers, in September 1915 he was transferred to the Royal Army Medical Corp (RAMC). 

While serving on a ship that was transferring wounded Allied soldiers from areas such as Gallipoli, William contracted pneumonia. He was admitted to the No. 15 General Hospital in Alexandria, Egypt and died there on December 23, 1915. 

This must have been devastating news to his wife Catherine and their family, including my seven-year-old grandfather Tom, with the information maybe only reaching Waterford during the Christmas period. The postcard shown here was sent home by many of those serving or infirmed in No.15 as a Christmas greeting in 1915.

The Commonwealth war graves records show that William is buried in Alexandria (Chatby) Military and War Cemetery in plot C 105. He was 53 when he died, which is quite old for a soldier and I often wonder what led him to that path of war. 

My plans to visit his grave in Egypt over the last couple of years have been put on hold due to the catastrophic events in the Middle East.

William’s son Patrick Kiely was another casualty of that same war. Patrick was killed in action on May 10, 1917, in France, most likely during the Battle of Arras - a major offensive by the Allied forces on the Western Front and typical of the horrific trench warfare of the time. 

The Registry of Soldiers Effects shows that both men left small sums of money to Tom Abbott's mother, my great-grandmother – Maggie Abbott.

Tom’s in-laws weren’t spared the harrowing loss through war either. His wife, Mary Denn, was my grandmother. Both Mary and her mother Johanna died within months of each other when I was young but I have very brief recollections of my great-grandmother Johanna lamenting the loss of her brother in the Great War many years previously. 

It was seldom spoken of but did stay with me. Years later I was able to put a name to her brother – Pierce Butler from Slievekeale. He was also killed in action in France, in June 1916. A note written on the back of his pocket service book is his handwritten will, where he left all of his belongings to his mother, Mary Butler.

The loss of Irish men fighting in Europe in the years around 1916 has long been a source of shame and hushed remembrance in this country. That, thankfully, has recently begun to be lifted. 

However, the real shame today is in a world that is returning to killing fields, heart-broken families and lost generations. 

Our globe is fragile, let’s hope that peace and understanding can prevail.