Tyneside Irish: 24th, 25th, 26th and 27th (Service) Battalions of Northumberland Fusiliers

By John Sheen

The Pals battalions were a phenomenon of the Great War, never repeated since. Under Lord Derbys scheme, and in response to Kitcheners famous call for a million volunteers, local communities raised (and initially often paid for) entire battalions for service on the Western Front. Their experience was all too frequently tragic, as men who had known each other all their lives, had worked, volunteered, and trained together, and had shipped to France together, encountered the first full fury of modern battle on the Somme in July 1916. Many of the Pals battalions would not long survive that first brutal baptism, but their spirit and fighting qualities have gone down into history - these were, truly, the cream of Britains young men, and every single one of them was a volunteer.This is a comprehensive history of the Tyneside Irish Brigade raised in the North East. It covers their raising, training and active service as well as the aftermath of the war and how it effected the local community. Included is an invaluable nominal roll which will appeal to local, family and military enthusiasts alike.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Jun 15, 2010
• ISBN: 9781783409914

John Sheen

John Sheen is an author and historian.

Book preview

Chapter One

The Irish Come to the North East

‘Oh Father dear and I often hear you speak of Erin’s Isle, her lofty scenes, her valleys green, her mountains rude and wild, They say it is a lovely land, wherein a prince might dwell, Then why did you abandon it? The reason to me tell.’ Skibereen TRAD

The story of the Tyneside Irish Brigade really begins in Ireland in 1847. The effects of the ‘Potato Famine’ drove unfortunate men and women from their homes, and many emigrated to America, Australia and New Zealand. Large numbers came to Great Britain. Those who came to the North East of England landed mainly at Whitehaven and other ports on the North West coast. They made their way across country to where they could find work. In the 1840s the North East, in particular County Durham, became a focal point for the Irish immigrant. The growth in coal, iron, chemical, shipbuilding and engineering industries, and the railways, meant there was work for the unskilled, illiterate and often penniless Irish peasant.

The earliest arrivals frequently lived in makeshift camps alongside the railways or out on the fells. The first to arrive were mainly young single men seeking to establish themselves in secure employment, before sending for their families and relatives. These men were usually offered the most menial and lowest paid jobs. While they tried to scrape together the fare for a sweetheart or a younger brother, they were obliged to live in the dirtiest, cheapest lodging houses they could find.

These foreign immigrants were often treated with suspicion and unkindness by the native Geordie. There was also a great animosity against them, for, in the long strike of 1844, Lord Londonderry had evicted the Geordie miners from their homes in Seaham, and brought in 150 Irishmen to man his pits. This small number of Irish blacklegs was exaggerated daily by rumour until many thought there were thousands of Irish scabs in Seaham. The stigma remained for decades in the coalfield. Forty or fifty years later, in some collieries the first to be laid off would be the ‘Irish’, even though they were second and third generation Irish, born and raised in England, and had worked in a particular colliery longer than some of the English miners.

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Sinkers at Ludworth Colliery. Sinking colliery shafts was a job done mainly by the Irish.

The bad feeling between the English and Irish communities in the region caused trouble to flare throughout the late 1800s. From the press reports of the time, one would believe that all the immigrant Irish were Fenians, and when there was trouble it would be described as a Fenian Insurrection. With the majority of the immigrants being Roman Catholic, the English found it difficult to separate Irish Fenianism and Irish Catholicism. It is not widely known that Orange Lodges were operating in the North East. Although the exact membership is unknown, some of them must have been immigrant Ulstermen. There was always the chance of conflict between the two communities, and a major riot took place on 12 July 1856, when Newcastle and Gateshead Orangemen decided to march through Felling to visit another Orange Lodge. The route chosen was through an area where many Irishmen were employed at the Felling Chemical Works and the march was bound to provoke a reaction from Catholic workers.

As time passed the Irish became more educated and established in their communities, and many second generation immigrants were able to obtain semi-skilled, and, in some cases, skilled employment. However, for the vast majority, labouring jobs were all that could be obtained. By 1871 there was an increase in the Irish working in the pits. Many moved round the colliery villages as work was available. Bernard Connolly worked as a sinker, sinking shafts for new coal mines. Like other Irish workers he worked in many colliery villages and his subsequent large family, born in various locations, joined other children who were frequently sent out to work at an early age. At the age of 11 boys could be employed in the mine and girls in domestic service or farm work.

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William Lonsdale with his children in 1913. Many families would be left fatherless by the war. William was killed on 1 July 1916 aged 29 years. At the time he was serving as a Lance Corporal in the Tyneside Irish. The photograph was taken outside his home at Whitfield Street, Crook

The Irish in England gained an unenviable reputation, They had the stigma of being foreigners, potential job-stealers and they came from a distinct religious and ethnic group. The Irish brogue being very different, it stood out amidst the guttural Geordie dialect. This situation led to the Irish congregating into ghettoes in the particular localities they chose to settle; thus Elvet, and latterly Framwellgate in Durham City came to have strong Irish connections. The same thing happened in many towns and cities, Bottle Bank in Birtley and Wrekenton at Gateshead are good examples.

These Irish had a reputation for disease, dirt and drunkeness, which, in some cases, was probably justified, but many families struggled to make progress. They were handicapped, for they had the lowest paid jobs, were living in the poorest slum dwellings imaginable, and were poorly educated. Even when schooling was available, some children would have been regular truants. Then, at the early age previously mentioned they were sent out to work. The large families were often overcrowded because of extended family loyalties. Any tenuous family link was a reason to provide a roof over the heads of long-lost cousins, as well as brothers and sisters. It is perhaps a sad reflection on the state of things in Ireland that so many left and came to live in England where they would be despised and treated with contempt, and in some areas open hostility. These problems were some-times increased by the political activities of societies such as the Fenian and Hibernian clubs. It is hardly surprising that when an outbreak of typhus in the Gateshead area started to spread amongst the poor Irish, it soon became known as the Irish disease. Later cholera struck in the same area, and demands were made for the Irish to be driven out.

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Entertainment was self made, St Mary Magdelene’s RC Church brass band. Seated on the priest’s right is John Scollen, he would be killed on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, 1 July 1916.

Many areas where the Irish settled contained housing that was damp, dirty and ill-ventilated, and inside, bedding was often verminous and occupied in relays; as one shift of workers went out, the others came in. What entertainment there was, was self-made, with the singing of songs about Ireland well to the fore, especially when some men became maudlin through drink.

Many buildings were divided up into tenements with as many large families in the building as there were rooms to let. There were no sewers or drains in some places and cleanliness was almost impossible. Violence and disturbances through drink often led to the police being involved. Nevertheless many people struggled to make a decent standard of living for themselves and their families.

The immigration of the Irish into the North East brought far reaching consequences for the development of the area. Many monuments bear witness to the labour provided by the Irish. Railway viaducts at Durham and Chester le Street were built by navvies, and yet the majority of the industries that brought them have disappeared. Even the world-famous Durham coalfield no longer has a working colliery. However, at the turn of the century coal was king. It provided work for one of the highest industrial populations of the country, and provided power for other industries. The Durham and Northumberland coalfields were thriving as output increased, with the demand for more steel to make bigger and better warships, as war loomed nearer. 1913 had been a boom year for the coal industry, and, by the summer of 1914, coal was stockpiled high. There was a lull in production and consequently most collieries were working a two or three day fortnight. Unemployment was at a high level and men were travelling all over the region looking for work, in a desperate attempt to feed their families. This then was the background at the time of the raising of the Tyneside Irish Brigade.

The Call to Arms

With the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on the 28th of June 1914, the fuse was lit. The countries of Europe rushed to mobilise. On the morning of the 4th of August German troops crossed the Belgium border, and Great Britain delivered an ultimatum to the German Government that Germany should respect Belgian neutrality. When the ultimatum expired at 11 p.m. Berlin time, Britain was at war. The British Expeditionary Force of six Infantry divisions and one Cavalry division was quickly deployed to France.

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Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austria-Hungarian Throne, and his wife Sophie, on 28 June 1914, leaving the town hall at Sarajevo a few minutes prior to their deaths at the hands of assassin Gavrilo Princip.

On the 5th of August Field Marshal Earl Kitchener had assumed the duties of Secretary of State for War and immediately he asked Parliament to authorise an additional 500,000 men for the army. Kitchener was of the opinion that the war would not be over by Christmas, that it would last at least three years, and that some seventy divisions would be involved. He had been opposed to the formation of the Territorial Force in 1908, and would not use it as the basis of forming his expansion of the army. Instead he intended to start from scratch and raise a ‘NEW ARMY’. Every man would be a volunteer, required to enlist for service anywhere for three years, or for the duration of the war.

On the 11th of August, Kitchener’s famous proclamation was released. A poster was published with the words:

Your King and Country Need You

A CALL TO ARMS

The poster called for 100,000 men between the ages of 19 and 30 to enlist for general service.

Many young men of Irish descent rushed to join the colours: after all, they thought that it would be over by Christmas, the pits were idle, so what better time was there to have a holiday at the Government’s expense? The early Kitchener battalions of the Northumberland Fusiliers, Durham Light Infantry and Green Howards found recruits flocking to their depots and in particular, The Green Howards attracted many recruits because of its name. If it had been The Orange Howards, many Catholic recruits would have joined another regiment. In Durham, Walter and James Sheen, Paddy Burke and Thomas Killian all went to The Green Howards for this reason, but their older relatives Edward Sheen, Joe Burke and Michael Killian all waited , and eventually joined the First Battalion of the Tyneside Irish.

However there was a movement to have these men transfer to Irish regiments. A letter in the ‘Northern Daily Mail’ on 22 September 1914, under the heading ‘AN IRISH CALL TO ARMS’, stated,

‘Sir - The idea of forming an Irish fighting force in response to the appeal of Lord Kitchener for recruits, has been publicly endorsed by the Prime Minister on the occasion of his visit to Dublin, and it is anticipated that men of Irish birth or descent, resident in Great Britain, will be able to join. Many have already fallen into line by joining Irish units, but of the 2,000 young Irishmen who have joined the colours in South Durham and North Yorkshire during the past two months, the overwhelming majority are not associated with Irish Regiments. It is understood that the War Office will give favourable consideration to applications for transfers to the new Irish Corps, and for that reason I desire to ask all who have Irish relatives in the recent lists of recruits to forward their names either to Mr John Mulcahy, Mitchell St, Birtley, Co Durham, Mr Farrell Keirman, 285 Burley Rd, Leeds, or to myself. The name of the regiments must also be given. I hope that officials of Irish organisations in Darlington, Stockton, Middlesbrough, The Hartlepools and other large centres of population will co-operate in the preparation of as complete a list as possible. Yours truly

Robt McLean 37 Charles Street, Redcar.’

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George Barrow before the war. By 1916 he was a sergeant in the 4th Tyneside Irish and he was twice awarded the Military Medal.

But many of these 2,000 young ‘Irishmen’ had never been within a hundred miles of Ireland. In some cases their grandparents had arrived as long ago as 1850, but because of their religion and the locality in which they lived they were still known as ‘Irish’. How many transferred under this scheme is unknown, but from research it would appear that very few did. However at least two are known to have transferred to the Tyneside Irish from other Infantry regiments and one, Private Thomas Keogh having served in France with the South Irish Horse, transferred to the Tyneside Irish, to be with his brother Richard.

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Recruits for the Green Howards at Durham Railway Station, 3 September 1914. Many of them were of Irish descent. Ringed is the author’s grandfather (behind) Walter Sheen and his mate Paddy Burke.

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Lord Kitchener’s portrait was featured in various ways and places throughout the Country in the summer and autumn of 1914. This is a postcard.

Many men just wanted to join the army and would travel quite a distance to do so. Some were not particular which regiment they joined whereas others were to join the Tyneside Irish for the sole reason that they worked with an Irishman who was joining the Tyneside Irish Brigade.

‘We didn’t plan on joining the Tyneside Irish. In fact we would have preferred the Durhams but me and my brothers Sam and Eddy ended up in Sunderland. We couldn’t find the DLI recruiting office so we went to the pub where this bloke told us where to find it. It was for the Tyneside Irish so we thought Oh well and took the shilling’.

(Lew Shaughnessy, 27th Battalion).

‘I could have joined the Durhams but my father was Irish and there was any amount to pick from. Yet there were more English than Irish in the Battalion as I remember. We thought it would be a good holiday and a chance to see different countries.’

(Michael Manley 26th Battalion).

Chapter Two

Raising the Tynside Irish Brigade

‘We’re not so old in the Army List

But we’re not so new at our trade.’

KIPLING

The first indication of the raising of a battalion from the Irish community on Tyneside appeared in a letter to the Editor of ‘The Newcastle Evening Chronicle’, of Saturday, 12 September 1914. Under the heading, ‘TYNESIDE IRISH Proposal to Form a New Regiment’, the following was printed:

‘It is evident from the statement of Mr Asquith in the House of Commons last night that every available man in the country must be got to join the New Army if the enemy is to be overcome. That there are thousands of suitable men who have not yet come forward cannot be denied, and all citizens must make a strenuous effort to get these men to join the colours at once.

The idea of regiments of Pals, which has received the sanction of the War Office, and has proved such a huge success all over the country, is a good one, and in order to give it our full support and do our utmost to assist the country in this terrific struggle, we suggest that an Irish Regiment be formed on Tyneside, which Irishmen of all classes and denominations can join. The number of Irishmen resident in this district is a large one, and although great numbers of our countrymen have already joined, we believe it is possible to get the necessary number of men who, no doubt, would prefer to enlist in such a regiment of a distinctive character in which all would be comrades and friends. A meeting to promote this object will be held in the Collingwood Hall, Irish National Club, Clayton Street, Newcastle, on Sunday 13th of September at 3 o’clock, and every representative Irishman on Tyneside, regardless of politics or religion, should consider it his bounden duty to attend.’

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The Mayor of Newcastle 1913-1914, Colonel Johnstone Wallace. His term of office coincided with the raising of the Tyneside Irish.

The letter was signed PETER BRADLEY (Newcastle), ALD O’HANLON (Mayor of Wallsend), JOHN FARNON(Newcastle), FELIX LAVERY (Newcastle), P O’RORKE (Newcastle), COUNCILLOR BENNETT (Felling), JOHN I GORMAN (President, Irish National Club), JOHN MAHONEY (Secretary, Irish National Club), JAMES McLARNEY(Secretary, Ancient Order of Hibernians England), J E SCANLAN J.P.(Newcastle).

It can be seen from this letter that the original idea was for a new regiment cutting across religious and political divides. The first plan for the Tyneside Irish Battalion was to offer its services to the 16th (Irish) Division that was in the process of being formed in Southern Ireland. However, the Commander of the 16th Division, Lieutenant-General L W Parsons declined the offer, saying that he wanted no ‘slum birds’ in his division, but rather the clean, fine, strong hurley-playing country fellows found in the Munsters, Connaught Rangers and Royal Irish. [One wonders what the ‘slum birds’ thought of the General.] Within two days a telegram was received from the War Office, in response to the offer to raise a battalion, saying,

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Members and friends of the the Tyneside Irish Committee: 1. Mr J Farnon; 2. Mr J Fewester; 3. Mr J C Doyle; 4. Mr P Bradley; 5. Mr P Bennett; 6. Lieutenant-Colonel M E Byrne; 7. Major J W Prior; 8. Mr N Grattan Doyle; 9. Major W E Jones; 10. Mr E Conway; 11. Father G McBrearty; 12. Right Rev. Dr Collins; 13. Mr M Holohan; 14. Mr J Mulcahy; 15. Dr D K O’Kelly; 16. Mr P O’Rorke

‘The Army Council expresses its sincere thanks for your patriotic offer which will be submitted to the Secretary of State.’

However, at a meeting on 19th of September, those interested in raising the battalion were informed that, on the 18th of September, a letter had been received from the War Office to the effect that, owing to the number of local battalions already authorised, the Army Council had decided that no more such battalions be sanctioned.

The Army Council thanked the committee for its patriotic offer, but were unable to accept it. It would appear that this was due to the Tyneside Scottish committee arguing with the War Office about the wearing of the kilt.

Most of the initial recruits now dispersed and many enlisted into other regiments, for example, James Fitzpatrick, from Pomeroy, County Tyrone, enlisted in the First Tyneside Scottish and nothing further in the way of recruiting would be done until October.

On Saturday, 10th of October, Lord Haldane visited Newcastle with a request from Lord Kitchener to Sir Thomas Oliver that a Tyneside Scottish Battalion be raised, which led to hopes that something would be done to renew the efforts to raise the Tyneside Irish Battalion. In fact Lord Haldane did not meet Sir Thomas Oliver, but a meeting with the Lord Mayor, Councillor Johnstone Wallace, did take place which led to the War Office recognising the Mayor as the official raiser of the Tyneside Brigades.

A Chronicle reporter interviewed one of the Irish committee, who took the view that if the War Office requested the raising of a battalion the work would be done. After Lord Haldane returned to London, the Lord Mayor of Newcastle then received a telegram sanctioning a Tyneside Brigade comprising three battalions, Scottish, Irish and a second Commercial Battalion, so that steps were taken immediately to enrol members, and the Corn Exchange in Newcastle was opened as a recruiting office. The Scottish recruited briskly, but the Irish were much slower, although at the Irish National Club, as many as forty men presented themselves as would-be recruits.

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According to the book Irish Heroes Henry Doyle, the son of one of the Raising Committee, was the first recruit. He served as a sergeant in the 24th Battalion and was commissioned into the 26th Battalion.

It is interesting to note that, according to The Evening Chronicle, the first two names for enrolment were PATRICK BUTLER of Newcastle and JAMES LEACH of Hebburn. However, in the book, Irish Heroes in the War, Joseph Keating gives the first recruit as Henry Doyle, the son of one of the Raising Committee. Among this group of men was one ex-regular of the Connaught Rangers who apparently said, ‘Put me in with the boys’. From the very beginning then, the Tyneside Irish had an ex-regular cadre who helped bring the Brigade to a high level of training. Many of these ex-regulars were promoted to senior NCO bringing experience of fighting on the North West Frontier, the Sudan and, of course, in South Africa against the Boers. Among them was Jack Erett, who had served in the 18th, The Royal Irish Regiment, who soon became Company Sergeant Major of C Company, and John Connolly who had served in the 1st Northumberland Fusiliers enlisted on the 9th of November. On the morning of the 10th he was promoted corporal and that afternoon he became a sergeant.¹ [24/585 John Connolly, not to be confused with 24/1151 and 26/1386.]

Captain Arnold, C Company commander remembered his CSM like this,

‘I was blessed with a very good sergeant major, Jack Erett, from whom I learned more than I ever could repay. Erett was a native of Waterford and had served through the South African War with the Royal Irish. He was a man who had educated himself far above the standard of rank and file. After his first Army service he had drifted into mining, but had always kept himself in a class distinct from his fellows. Certainly as things stood in the new armies he made an ideal sergeant major, keen, intelligent even tempered and strictly temperate. I liked him from the beginning and we worked together to make the company as good as it could be.’

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Company Sergeant Major Jack Erett. He had served in India and South Africa with The Royal Irish Regiment.

Lew Shaughnessy also remarked on the ex-regulars in the ranks of the Tyneside Irish,

‘Some of the lads in our platoon had been in before and they knew all the dodges.’

The original recruits were described thus by Captain Jack Arnold,

‘When I joined the 24th Battalion, I found a motley throng very reminiscent of the types that used to file along the roads to annual militia musters in Ireland. They had no uniforms, no collars, boots that had toes peeping through them and trousers that were more patch than piece; there were old and young, some born in Ireland, some in England of Irish parentage, some having no connection with Ireland beyond the same church or the fact they worked in the same pit with an Irishman. An unusually large number were illiterate, the married ones hardly knew how many children they had got and the single ones were not sure if they were married or not and it was evident they had one characteristic in common, many were no stranger to an empty belly’.

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The first recruit according to the Newcastle Chronicle was Sergeant Patrick Butler (No.21 on photo). He became the bombing Sergeant of D Company and was killed 1st July, 1916, after rescuing his Commanding Officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Meredith Howard, who had been wounded.

These early recruits were given a piece of green cloth to wear as an armband, to denote that they had volunteered for the Irish Battalion. In the same way, the Newcastle Commercials wore a red lanyard, and the Tyneside Scottish a Royal Stewart armband.

Joseph Cowen’s Gift

At a meeting in the Town Hall, the Lord Mayor explained that the costs of what was termed ‘Irregular Corps’, had to be borne by the raising committees until they were finally taken over by the War Office. He also added that Mr Joseph Cowen, of Stella Hall, had made a magnificent gift of ten thousand pounds to meet any deficiency which might occur before the battalions were taken over by the War Office. This removed the financial difficulties that the committee had faced, so recruiting could now begin in earnest. Sir Thomas Oliver addressed the meeting, the offer was unanimously accepted, and the thanks of the Committee conveyed to Mr Joseph Cowen.

On 19 October 1914 a representative meeting was held in the Council Chamber of Newcastle Town Hall, when all those who had signed the original letter were present. The Lord Mayor [Councillor Johnstone Wallace who was a Unionist] addressed the meeting and then invited the Mayor of Wallsend (Ald John O’Hanlon) to speak. The Mayor of Wallsend moved the following resolution,

Advertisements for recruits appeared regularly in the papers.

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‘That this meeting, of representative Irishmen on Tyneside, views with grati-tude the proposal to create a Tyneside Irish Battalion for service at the front, and pledges itself, to the utmost of its ability, to carry the proposal to a successful conclusion. The meeting also wishes to place on record its deep appreciation of Mr Joseph Cowen’s generous assistance in the matter.’

Mr Grattan Doyle spoke, as did Father McGill, Dean of St Mary’s Roman Catholic Cathedral, and also the Rev C.E. Osborne, representing the Church of England clergy. Officials were elected, and the first meeting of the Executive Committee was set for Wednesday, 21 October 1914, at 8 p.m. A telegram was received from ‘The United Irish League’ in Westminister by Mr J Mulcahy, one of the secretaries. Mr T P O’Connor MP placed himself at the disposal of the Lord Mayor, and the people of Newcastle, and asked for dates of recruiting meetings at which he could speak.

On Saturday, 24 October 1914, the first recruiting poster appeared in the newspapers, showing the heads of four famous Irish Generals and the headline ‘IRISHMEN, TO ARMS!’ This poster also had an application form, that a would-be recruit, in an outlying village, could cut out, enter his details, and then forward to the recruiting committee. Also large posters in the Irish colours of green and gold, headed by the words, ‘THE CALL TO ARMS! YOUR COUNTRY NEEDS YOU!’ were posted in all districts of the North-East.

By 28 October 1914, there was a reported strength of 303. This was the result of postal applications and the work of the recruiting office in the Corn Exchange. Offers of help were also received from Doctors and military and police pensioners who were willing to instruct in drill. Arrangements were said to be well in hand for a great recruiting meeting to be held in the Town Hall on the 31st and on that day, a second recruiting poster appeared in the papers, headed ‘IRISHMEN FOR THE BATTLE LINE’.

On 28 of October 1914, it was also stated in ‘The Chronicle’ that Colonel V.M. Stockley, late Indian Army, had accepted command of The Tyneside Irish Battalion, and that Colonel Ritson had offered two fields behind Jesmond Gardens as a training ground.

The early parades in Eldon Square were a strange sight to the towns-people, when every morning the men gathered for the battalion parade.

‘Every morning the battalion paraded in Eldon Square at 9 a.m. Major Joe Prior was always in command, he was a man of great physique, over six feet tall and proportionately made. We had a band of fifes and drums. The battalion shunned, sloped arms (those that had them), formed fours and then to the strains of The Harp that once through Tara’s Hall’s, marched off to the Town Moor to begin the day’s training.’ (Captain Jack Arnold)

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Posters printed in green on gold paper were posted throughout the region.

Recruiting Offices for the Tyneside Irish were being opened in all districts of the North-East, as follows: