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The Soldier's Last Letter
Private Joseph Loftus of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders |
This was the last letter Joe wrote just months before he died. It was addressed to his brother Jack (my grandfather).
Loftus and Mackey soldiersof the Great WarMy grandfather's youngest brother Joe, joined the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders around 1915 in Glasgow. The picture above is of Joe with his brother Jim and the letter is the last one he wrote before being killed in action. His body was identified because of this letter which was found in the pocket of his army tunic. For his sacrifice Joe was postumusly awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. He died on the 9th of May 1917 aged 23 and he is commemorated at the Arras Memorial,France. Joe's brothers Martin and Bill fought in the war. Martin was a career soldier and had originally joined the Royal Field Artillery Regiment in 1900. He served 18 years and was discharged in 1920. In those 18 years he had been stationed in quite a few places including India and Egypt. During world war one he served in Mesopotamia as part of a 150,000 British force intent in recovering the losses suffered at Gallipoli. What is now modern day Iraq was transformed by this force. In Basra they built a modern port and a railway, they also expanded the river transportation. He would have participated in the battle of Kut in 1917. He remained in Mesopotamia until 1918 when he was transferred to Egypt. He was awarded the British War and Victory medals. Martin married Alice McEvoy in Drogheda in 1910. They had three children together. Anne Marie, Michael Joseph and Martin. He died five years after the war due to the effects of gas poisoning which had ravaged his lungs. His son Michael went on to be a very successful photographer and worked for The Irish Press. Bill was a decorated war hero who rescued an officer from no man's land and lived to a ripe old age. He served in Gallipoli as a private with the Munster Fusillers and was awarded the British War and Victory medals as well as the 1915 star. He never married and lived with his brother Tom who had been in the IRA during the war. They were both very eccentric but very different. A very odd couple indeed who were poles apart politically and they were often heard by their neighbours arguing over politics. The arguement regularly ended with Tom pointing out that his brother had betrayed Ireland by taking the "King's shilling!"
Their cousin Henry Loftus joined the Leinster Regiment and became a sergeant. As a member of the exhumation team he helped recover many of the bodies from the battlefields. Henry was the son of James Loftus's brother Patrick and Mary Loftus nee Grady's sister Ellen.
The picture above is of Henry on the Ypres battlefield He died in 1970. His brother Patrick like Joseph lost his life in France and was a private with the Royal Irish Fusiliers. Patrick died on the 27th of April 1916.
Henry James Loftus It should be remembered that a considerable number of the allied troops who lost their lives in the trenches were young Irishmen not all of whom were "true blue" Ulster protestants. Like Joe, his brothers and cousins, many of the recruits hailed from southern Ireland and from staunchly catholic and republican backgrounds.
The badge of the Connaught Rangers My maternal grandmother Mary Loftus nee Mackey also had 2 brothers Martin and Peter who served with the Connaught Rangers. Both were luckier than most and were wounded very early on in the war.
Martin Mackey and inset his brother Peter both received the Silver medal having been wounded early on in the war. An estimated 320,000 Irishmen took part in the Great War 49,400 of whom died. They joined the British army for many different reasons, for some it was the "manly" thing to do macho and exciting, defending their homeland from the dreaded "Hun". However, for a large number of them it was in the, some would say, naive belief that in doing so they would have earned Ireland its right to home rule. That was not to be. The Irish "Free State" came into being in 1921 with the signing of the "Anglo Irish Treaty". A bloody civil war ensued. The Republic of Ireland was not declared until 1949.
Joseph Loftus pictures taken in Glasgow just before he joined up When I think of Joe and the place where he lies, the song Willie McBride comes to mind and in particular, the words "and did they believe when they answered the call, did they really believe that this war would end wars. The sorrow, the suffering, the glory, the pain, the killing and dying were all done in vein. For young Willie McBride it all happens again and again and again and again and again." My sincere wish is that unlike the young man in the song my grand uncle, his cousin Patrick and all the young men like them,will have found eternal rest in the green fields of France and Belgium. |
Anthem for Doomed Youth
by Wilfred Owen What passing-bells for those who die like cattle? |
