Kilbeggan WWI book online with Google Play

‘Who Answered the Bugle Call’, written by Ray Metters for the Kilbeggan Heritage Group, is now available for free viewing on Google Play Books (play.google.com). Westmeath Community Development sponsored the book in 2011 under the 2007-2013 Leader Programme.

The revised edition of 2022 includes updates, such as the additional page showing three deaths of Royal Navy personnel. Petty Officer James Hans Montgomery, the son of John and Elizabeth Montgomery of Kilbeggan, is one person named. He was born in Castleton, Meath, and died aged 45 at HMS Vivid Barracks, Devonport, following an illness, in 1915.

The book section in Google Play allows pages to be viewed in different formats, including the single-page option with larger print. Selecting the symbol ‘A’ at the top right of the screen allows this choice. The website also offers a search facility, which will be useful when investigating a family member (the original book offered no index).

Although Kilbeggan is the primary focus of the book, there are many references to soldiers born in different parts of Westmeath, County Offaly, and more distant areas. The study researches civilian involvement and the effect of war upon localities. Another consideration is the importance of WWI regarding the later War of Independence.

Moate’s George Adamson of the Machine Gun Corps was a WWI soldier decorated for bravery. He became well known for his exploits with Republican resistance following WWI. Kilbeggan’s James McCormack, one of four brothers who fought in the British Army in the First World War, also contributed to the later struggle at home. He was Commandant Sean McGuinness’s lieutenant in ‘B’ Command, 1st Battalion North Offaly No 1 Brigade, and Assistant Adjutant in No 1 Tipperary Brigade (Nenagh) under Commandant Liam Hoolan, during the Civil War. After the ‘troubles’, James joined the Irish Republic’s army and rose to the rank of captain.

The book unearths soldiers hardly known, who linger as shadowy figures. John Boland of Rahugh, Kilbeggan, is an example. He is difficult to find even on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s website. His full name and number produce no result, but ‘J. Boland’ reveals basic facts regarding his home town and regiment.

John Boland was the second son of an agricultural labourer, according to the Irish census of 1901. He lived at House 8, Lowertown, Rahugh. However, his American-born mother, Mary, emerges as a farmer by 1911. Her husband, Patrick, had died before the census record and it is likely that he was also a farmer.

The official records can display controversial comments. Another example occurs with the 1901 claim that all family members could not read. Yet, Mary by 1911 has mastered this skill, while her three sons could now both ‘read and write’.

John Boland joined the 9th Royal Dublin Fusiliers. The regiment usually recruited in the eastern counties, so John’s link to the regiment is puzzling, although there are other RDF recruits elsewhere in the midlands. Maybe there was insufficient work on the family farm for all three sons, and John had moved nearer to Dublin for his employment.

John would have known the remarkable priest, Fr ‘Willie’ Doyle. Although officially attached to the 8th RDF regiment as its chaplain, Fr Doyle moved across all units of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers and other regiments. It is a brave man who enters a battle scene with only his rosary beads and anointing oil. The Jesuit priest was a constant presence, assisting any person and even remaining in dangerous territory to bury bodies.

Willie Doyle’s humanity stretched beyond regimental boundaries and nationality. He could empathise with the enemy, attending to suffering Germans by offering food, drink, and medical care.

A clip from his diary, as he gazed upon dead bodies in September 1916, recalls Fr Doyle’s thoughts for a German mother: ‘A third face caught my eye, a tall, strikingly handsome young German, not more I should say, than eighteen. He lay there calm and peaceful, with a smile of happiness on his face, as if he had had a glimpse of Heaven before he died. Ah, if only his poor mother could have seen her boy, it would have soothed the pain of her broken heart.’

The priest, who could see the tragedy in the hateful conflict, and who earned the Victoria Cross many times in the opinion of his men, despite being officially limited to the Military Cross award, suffered the same fate a year later. Willie Doyle perished at Passchendaele with John Boland. They died within 24 hours of each other, in August 1917. John’s bones lie in the massive Tyne Cot cemetery but Father Doyle’s body remains lost, so his name is only on the memorial monument.

Placing this 10-year-old book online should not only circulate the material to a wider audience, but allow feedback from knowledgeable informants who may enrich this study.

• The free viewing is on Google Play, not Google Books.