James Sullivan's First World War Diary

By Rosemarie Meleady

At 18 years old, James Sullivan volunteered for the Great War and was assigned to the 10th Battalion Royal Dublin Fusilers. After one week of target practice he was on his way to the Front Line. Four years later, James Sullivan began his Memoirs of his three years and three months of service, in the First World War. For nearly 100 years, his First World War Memoir has sat, unseen, in the back of an old wardrobe. The words he recorded give a unique and vivid picture of life in the trenches, the everyday duties of a WW1 soldier, rest time, hospital stays, his brief encounter with royalty and the awfulness of war. I’m Rosemarie Meleady, and these are the Memoirs of my grandfather.

"I prefer the Front Line to what we have to do now. Every night we go up under cover of darkness to the third line to dig new trenches. Hungry and tired we dig for our very lives through dead bodies of the French, who were here before us. What a stench. Surly this is awful, what do we do with them - pull them out, drag them up on top and re bury them. Such was our first experience of the Great War.

"4.35am and we are to get over and meet our dear friend the German. The barrage starts. Every gun of ours opens fire, the air is alive with shells. What a hell on earth. We are at the German wire entanglements, four belts of wire are cut to pieces by our gun fire, we make a run for the German Front Line. Some of us don’t get far, they fall everywhere. I have steeled my nerves for the worst, but it does not happen. I find I am on top of the German before I know. His Front Line trench is level with our shell fire, a fly could not live in it. Hundreds of dead Germans lie along it mangled to pieces."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rosemarie Meleady
• Release date: Mar 3, 2011
• ISBN: 9780956723383

Rosemarie Meleady

I won the 'International Women in Publishing Award 1996' but couldn't make it to the award ceremony as I decided to give birth that day instead. I have written 7 books but the Diary is the only manuscript I have made public so far. More to come! So keep an eye on my website, twitter and facebook pages to keep up! A review of My Grandad's diary: Such memoirs by a Private are very rare. Your grandfather's account of his training and service in France will be of great interest to those discovering relatives who served in the First World War. He skilfully portrays the random nature of the casualties and the boring routine....Your short story at the end is moving. Sean Connolly Royal Dublin Fusiliers Association

Book preview

A Little of My Experiences of the

Great War 1916 to 1919

Memoirs of James Sullivan

Introduced by

Rosemarie Meleady

SMASHWORDS EDTION

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PUBLISHED BY:

Rosemarie Meleady on Smashwords

A Little of My Experiences of the

Great War 1916 to 1919

Memoirs of James Sullivan

Copyright 2011 by Rosemarie Meleady

Smashwords Edition License Notes

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All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-9567233-9-0

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Introduction

My grandfather, James Sullivan, grew up in Co. Dublin. Like most 18-year-old boys of his time, the travel and adventure a soldier’s life promised, beckoned him during the First World War.

He loved to write and in 1920, on his return from three years and three months in the Great War, he transcribed some of his experiences. His memoirs were never finished, but those he did write, touch on life in the trenches and the everyday grind of a WW1 soldier’s life.

Death, horror and fear were everyday encounters on the Front Line, and while he does write about these experiences, he found it more interesting to record the more unusual circumstances in which he found himself. Such as the times, during his three years of duty, that he got injured or sick (once from too much rum!), assigned the job of Runner (messenger from trenches to HQ) and his brief meeting with King Nicola I of Montenegro, who seemed to find my grandfather’s red hair amusing!

The 10th Battalion were a largely forgotten lot – after they disbanded, neither the Irish nor the English wanted to know anything about them.

Before the outbreak of war, there were 20,000 Irish soldiers in the regular British army. Another 30,000 were reservists. Dublin had three recruitment centres and over 200,000 men and women from all over Ireland volunteered, as there was no conscription in Ireland, during the Great War. At least 35,500 of these were killed.

The total killed in The Royal Dublin Fusiliers Regiment was 4,777. The actual number of Irish deaths in uncertain as Irishmen enlisted in non-Irish regiments as well as Irish regiments.

Originally a typical infantry battalion consisted of 1,000 men. Twelve battalions, grouped into 3 Brigades made up a Division. There were around 600 men in the 10th Battalion when formed.

The British soldiers' uniform at the time was a gray collarless undershirt, a 5-button tunic with closable collar, straight trousers held up by braces, leg wraps to be wound from ankle to calf, a trench coat, a trench cap and a leather jerkin for cold weather. Standard issue equipment was a Short Magazine Lee Enfield .303 rifle with a 1907 Wilkinson 17" blade bayonet. The two ammunition pouches soldiers carried could each hold up to 150 rounds. Gas masks were also used and a steel helmet was introduced in 1916.

After the War, James was going to leave Ireland and join the Canadian Mounties. At his going away party, he met my grandmother, Eileen Carroll,