Grangegorman Military Cemetery – Part One

Last year I found myself in Dublin for a few days, and while the missus was meeting up with friends one afternoon, I took the opportunity to visit a cemetery that I had wanted to see for quite some time.  If you ask most people in Dublin how to get to Grangegorman Military Cemetery they won’t be able to tell you (I’d heard this so I tried, and they couldn’t), but if you head up the eastern edge of Phoenix Park, past the Garda headquarters and the McKee Barracks, you’ll find the cemetery soon enough.  It contains many First World War burials, British soldiers evacuated from the trenches to hospitals in Ireland who subsequently died of their injuries, as well as casualties of the Easter Rising in 1916 and the War of Independence between 1919 and 1921. 

Before we enter the cemetery proper…

…there are a handful of later graves to our left (Section J on the cemetery plan) which include a few Second World War burials…

…and, in front of the wall in the background,…

…the one Victoria Cross holder in the cemetery.  Company Serjeant Major Martin Doyle won the Military Medal in March 1918, and the V.C. for his actions on 2nd September 1918.  The award was gazetted on 31st January 1919:

“Martin Doyle, M.M., Company Sergeant-Major, No. 10864, 1st Battalion Munster Fusiliers (New Ross, County Wexford). On September 2nd, 1918, near Riencourt, as Acting Company Sergeant-Major, command of the company devolved upon him consequent on officer casualties. Observing that some of our men were surrounded by the enemy, he led a party to their assistance, and by skill and leadership worked his way along the trenches, killed several of the enemy and extricated the party, carrying back under heavy fire a wounded officer to a place of safety. Later, seeing a tank in difficulties, he rushed forward under an intense fire, routed the enemy who were attempting to get into it, and prevented the advance of another enemy party collecting for a further attack on the tank. An enemy machine gun now opened on the tank at close range, rendering it impossible to get the wounded away, whereupon Company Sergeant-Major Doyle, with great gallantry, rushed forward, and, single-handed, silenced the machine gun, capturing it with three prisoners He then carried a wounded man to safety under a very heavy fire. Later in the day, when the enemy counter-attacked his position, he showed great power of command, driving back the enemy, and capturing many prisoners. Throughout the whole of these operations Company Sergeant-Major Doyle set the very highest example to all ranks by his courage and total disregard of danger.”

After the war Doyle returned to Ireland, leaving the British Army and before long finding himself fighting against the British as a member of the Irish Republican Army during the War of Independence, and later as a member of the Free State Army during the Civil War.  After hostilities ceased he served with the Irish Army until 1937, but sadly died in 1940 from the effects of polio.  As you can see, his headstone, in the style of, and today looked after by, the CWGC, was erected by his old comrades of the Royal Munster Fusiliers.

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

Grangegorman Military Cemetery was opened in 1876 as a burial ground for British military personnel and their families.  As you might expect, the sections on the cemetery plan (below) are laid out in denominational plots.

Grangegorman Cemetery Plan

Section A (see plan above, given to me by Ray Bateson whom I bumped into on my visit and who kindly gave me a personal tour of Grangegorman before his official tour arrived.  Thank you so much Ray) is the earliest part of the cemetery, consisting of late 19th Century and early 20th Century burials, so we shall begin our tour in Section B, the Church of Ireland & Church of England (Officers Section):

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

There are men buried or commemorated in this section who were killed in the Easter Rising, the War of Independence and the sinking of the R.M.S. Leinster, as well as First World War casualties killed in France or wounded and evacuated to Ireland where they subsequently died.  We begin with the four CWGC headstones to the left of the back row.

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

Lieutenant Phillip Purser (left) of the Royal Army Service Corps was killed returning to Dublin from Kingstown on 30th April 1916; Second Lieutenant Guy Pinfield (right) of the 8th (King’s Royal Irish) Hussars, was shot whilst on guard duty at Dublin Castle on 24th April 1916.  Both were buried in a temporary graves for some 46 years, before being exhumed and re-interred here.

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

Second Lieutenant Algernon Lucas (left) of the 2nd King Edward’s Horse was executed, murdered if you prefer, on the night of 28th April 1916, along with a civilian worker, William John Rice, at the Guinness Brewery in Dublin on the orders of Company Quartermaster Serjeant Robert Flood of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers who believed that both men were Sinn Feiners.  Twenty minutes later two others, Second Lieutenant Basil Worsley-Worswick and another civilian, were also murdered at the Brewery.  The subsequent court martial found no evidence that any of the murdered men had any connection with the rebels, yet Company Quartermaster Serjeant Flood was acquitted.  The whole incident smells decidedly fishy, and you might be interested to investigate it further.  Second Lieutenant Godfrey Hunter (right) of the 5th Lancers was killed on 26th April 1916 in Dublin.  Both Lucas and Hunter, like the two officers in the previous picture, were buried in the grounds of Dublin Castle, before much later being re-buried here.

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

Second Lieutenant George Gray, 4th Royal Dublin Fusiliers, killed in action in Dublin on 28th April 1916.

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

On 10th October 1918 the R.M.S. Leinster left Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire) bound for Holyhead, Anglesey, carrying 771 passengers and crew, of which 492 were military personnel returning from, or going on, leave.  At about 10.00 a.m. a German torpedo ripped into the port side of the ship, followed soon after, as the ship turned, by a second explosion on the starboard side.  The Leinster sank, bow first, taking more than 500 of those aboard with her, and quite a number of the military personnel who died that day are buried here.  Assistant Administrator May Westwell of Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corps is the only female military victim of the disaster buried in this cemetery.

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

Another Leinster victim (above & below); Lieutenant Anchitel Boughey of the 8th Bn, Rifle Brigade.

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

The next five CWGC headstones are all victims of the Leinster sinking (see indivdual headstones below).

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

Second Lieutenant Henry Byers, D.C.L.I. attached Royal Flying Corps, accidentally killed while flying, 12th November 1916, and George Byers, Serjeant in the Black Watch, killed in action near Bapaume in France on the 21st March 1918, the first day of the German spring offensive.

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

Above & below: Captain M. Clarke, Royal Irish Regiment, one of the six hundred at Balaclava.

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

Above & following photos: Looking back up Section B.  The headstones in the front row are:

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

Another man killed on 21st March 1918 in France; Second Lieutenant Frederick James of the Worcester Regiment.

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

Above & below: Captain Leonard Bates M.C. of the Tank Corps, accidentally killed whilst on duty in Dublin, 10th November 1917.

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

Captain Thomas Powell, Royal Irish regiment, died 1st July 1918.

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

Major Ian Cummins, Royal Garrison Artillery, died 20th July 1918.

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

Lieutenant Gordon Midgley, killed in a flying accident at Collinstown, 13th January 1919.

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

Lieutenant Henry de Vine of the Royal Irish Rifles, died 17th February 1919.

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

Lieutenant Stafford Hill died of natural causes in King George V Hospital, Dublin, on 2nd March 1919.

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

Captain Richard Bourne was killed in a flying accident at Baldonell Aerodrome, Dublin, on 6th November 1919.

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

Second Lieutenant Frederick Boast was killed in Phoenix Park, Dublin on 28th December 1919 when, as officer in charge of the guard at the Vice Regal Lodge, he and four soldiers went to investigate shots heard in the park.  A civilian who refused to stop when challenged was killed, as was Boast, a jury later recording a verdict that he had been shot by one of his own soldiers.

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

In memory of Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Hennessy, R.A.M.C., who died 21st June 1920.

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

Lieutenant Horace L’Amie was killed by the accidental discharge of a revolver (I believe it was in his pocket) at Collinstown Aerodrome, Dublin, on 5th October 1920.

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

Lieutenant Donald Maclean of the General List (formerly of the Rifle Brigade), one of 13 British agents assassinated on 21st November 1920 at various locations in Dublin on the orders of Michael Collins.  Maclean was, at least according to the IRA, believed to be the chief of intelligence at Dublin Castle, his army record shows he was on “special duties”, and it is reasonable to assume that he was indeed involved in intelligence work.

Grangegorman Panorama 3

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

More victims of the torpedoing of the R.M.S. Leinster.  Finally in this section, the relevant (as far as we are concerned) burials in the middle row:

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

Major Arthur Savage, whose death on 18th May 1921 was attributed to ill health caused by years of drinking.

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

Above & below: Captain Alfred Warmington, killed in action at the South Dublin Union on 24th April 1916.

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

Lieutenant Frank De Lisle Smith, Royal Field Artillery, died 31st October 1918.

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

Above & below: Lieutenant William Singleton, Royal Welsh Fusiliers, drowned in the Leinster tragedy, 10th October 1918.

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

Colonel William Mosse of the Royal Munster Fusiliers and his wife, both victims of the sinking of the Leinster.

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

Second Lieutenant William Adey, Westmorland and Cumberland Yeomanry, another Leinster victim.

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

Above & below: Second Lieutenant John Wallis, Wiltshire Regiment, another casualty of the sinking of the Leinster.

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

Lieutenant William Hall, South Lancashire Regiment, yet another victim of the Leinster sinking.

Grangegorman Military Cemetery

Lieutenant Harold Duffen of the Sherwood Foresters, killed in action in Dublin on 26th April 1916.

Grangegorman Panorama 5

Final view looking back towards Section B on the far side of the pathway; the CWGC headstones in Section C on this side of the path contain, among others, many more victims of the sinking of the R.M.S. Leinster, and we shall pay our respects there in a later post.

Which brings us to the end of the first part of our tour of this rather interesting cemetery.  Or at least nearly the end.  Not so many miles south of Dublin at the port of Dun Laoghaire, one of the salvaged anchors of the R.M.S. Leinster serves as a memorial for the men and women who died when the ship was sunk, and this seems an appropriate time and place to include a few photos for your perusal.

Dun Laoghaire

Dun Laoghaire

Dun Laoghaire

Dun Laoghaire

And that really is the end of part one of our visit to Grangegorman Military Cemetery.  Click here for Part Two.

This entry was posted in Dublin Cemeteries with Great War Burials. Bookmark the permalink.

26 Responses to Grangegorman Military Cemetery – Part One

  1. Ben Lacey says:

    This has made me want to visit this graveyard a great deal!

  2. Magicfingers says:

    Good. Go Ben, go. Check out the other posts on Grangegorman in the ‘Ireland’ section if you haven’t already.

  3. G Ratcliffe says:

    Fantastic work. One of my husbands clan Frederick Boast is buried here in Grangegorman, his father, grandfather and his brother were all lifetime soldiers , they survived many battles and many wars between them, his father and his brother were both Majors. What a sad end for Fred who had already excelled himself in France. We did already know all the details here but are grateful to you for this work it is very much appreciated. Someday we hope to get to visit his grave and this helps greatly. Thank you.

    • Magicfingers says:

      Thanks ever so for your comments. Very much appreciated. Glad I could be of help; as you can see from these posts, Grangegorman is a fascinating, if tragic, place to spend an afternoon.

      • Breandan O Somachain says:

        I was, until recently, one of those Dubs who had never heard of Grangegorman cemetery. I have visited it three times now and succeeded in getting on the tour today, which was God awful. The girl knew practically nothing of the place or the soldiers (not her fault but the OPW who didn’t make sure someone giving a tour knew their stuff). So I took some photos of headstones and names and looked them up online myself. I haven’t stopped reading your posts since. Thank you so much for the education.

        • Magicfingers says:

          I’m right, aren’t I Breandan? It seems that very few are actually aware of its existence. I was so lucky to get a private tour from Ray Bateson, whom I suspect knows more about Grangegorman than just about anyone. And thanks for your fantastic comments. Keep checking in!

  4. K Johnstone says:

    Hi,
    I am the author of a website which is a War grave Project for the7th Border Regiment and Westmorland an Cumberland Yeomary in the Great War. Site address above
    I see you have pictures from Grangegorman Military Cemetery and wonder if you would be willing to share two views of the cemetery plus the picture of the headstone of
    ADEY WILLIAM THOMAS HENWORTH Second Lieutenant 10 October 1918 Westmorland and Cumberland Yeomanry GRANGEGORMAN MILITARY CEMETERY CE. Officers. 19.
    I would of course mark any pictures used as Courtesy of (Your Name)
    Other W&C Yeomanry burials include
    BLACK THOMAS 61418 Lance Corporal 10 October 1918 Westmorland and Cumberland Yeomanry GRANGEGORMAN MILITARY CEMETERY CE. New Plot. 722.
    BIRCH JAMES 49187 Private 10 October 1918 Westmorland and Cumberland Yeomanry GRANGEGORMAN MILITARY CEMETERY CE. New Plot. 742.
    POWER PERCY 315421 Private 10 October 1918 Westmorland and Cumberland Yeomanry GRANGEGORMAN MILITARY CEMETERY RC. 617.

    but Adey is the only one I can see on your site.
    Please email me if you will share the pictures at spike10764@hotmail.co.uk

  5. Andy Kennedy says:

    I had the opportunity to visit here on 5th March 2015 and found the experience both moving and informative. It was particularly poignant as my uncle Andy is buried in Rheinberg Cemetery in Germany and my wife’s uncle Roland has no known grave. Both men served in the RAFVR, one from Ballymena, Co Antrim and one from Dublin. Will definitely return when next in Dublin.

    • Magicfingers says:

      As will I, that’s for sure. Thanks for your comments Andy. There are, btw, six Grangegorman posts in total (check out the Ireland category) on this site, in case you haven’t looked at the others.

  6. Mike Pickard says:

    Magnificant pictures, I visited the cemetary in April 15 and a team of groundsmen were making good all the borders and planting new flowers. I took pictures for my friends to share, then moved on to the Military Cemetary at the Curragh, taking pictures of all Lancer burials in both cemetaries. I must say no one could direct me to Grangegorman either but found it easy using the tourist map. The people in Doublin and at the Curragh were friendly, helpful and a delight. Iwould recommend a visit to both sites by anyone who is in the area.

  7. James Monahan says:

    I have several relatives buried here including my Great grandfather and his brother who are buried in the section at the front, in separate graves and I am trying to find exactly where the other graves are as they are unmarked at the moment but I know they are in the back section. I would be happy to share the information I have about my relatives

  8. James Monahan says:

    Also I wanted to say what a great job you have done with this story of Grangegorman Cemetery Thank you

  9. James Monahan says:

    Hi Do you know if any more work has been done in section F as I know a great uncle is buried here but don’t know the spot Thanks

    • Magicfingers says:

      Hello again James? Did you ever see Des’s response to one of your earlier comments on Grangegorman Part Two? Otherwise I have no idea. What work are you referring to?

      • James Monahan says:

        Hi Magic I had stopped searching for a while as it was taking up so much time. I hadn’t seen Des’s reply until now so thank you for that. I will reply to him now and let you know if I get any results.

  10. Dennis Pasheka says:

    Very Interest To See History Lot Many Gravyard.

  11. Keith Sloane says:

    Hi Magic, I’m researching the NZ 15th North Auckland Regt (Main Body only). Peter Freitas one of the 3 NZers on the RMS Leinster was a member of the original 15th Regt. Story has it he died of hyperthermia. He later joined the NZASC. Although I have photos of Freitas’s headstone, I’d like to know where in the cemetery he’s buried. I’m guessing section K. There isn’t a cemetery map showing grave rows as on most CWGC cemetery records.
    It’s a great website you have and I gained info from another of your visits, Cite Bonjean if a recall. Happy for you to email me.

    • Magicfingers says:

      Hello Keith. Thanks for your ever so kind comments. You need to go on to Grangegorman Cemetery Part Two (there are six parts in total!!). There you will find photos of Lance Corporal Freitas’ headstone and those of the two New Zealanders buried next to him. The photo following then shows four of the Australians buried next to him on the other side, and all these men are buried in Section E. It may well be there are other photos in the other Grangegorman posts where you can see their graves in the background which will make things clearer, but that’s for you to do should you choose.
      I presume you refer to the New Zealand Memorial at Cite Bonjean. I am really pleased my site has been of use to you. Trust me, I do research all this as best I can, I assure you.

      • Keith Sloane says:

        Hello Magic, I actually sorted out where the graves are located from other cemetery images on line and using Google Maps showing the background houses. I now see many more of yours which makes it clearer still. Peter Freitas was married and had children, decendants of whom I’m in touch with. His is quite a story.
        I’m sure I’ll be in touch re other cemeteries as my project progresses.
        Thanks again!

  12. Pat McAleavey says:

    This is a forgotten graveyard that I was introduced to as a shared history of the troubles in the North! Wonderful to hear about and well worth visit especially with someone who familiar with that graveyard!

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