Maurice James Dease, British Army officer during World War I, dies in Mons, Belgium on August 23, 1914. He is one of the first British officer battle casualties of the war and the first posthumous recipient of the Victoria Cross in the war.
Dease is born on September 28, 1889 in Gaulstown, Coole, County Westmeath to Edmund Fitzlaurence and Katherine Murray Dease. He is educated at Stonyhurst College and the Army Department of Wimbledon College before attending the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He is 24 years old, and a lieutenant in the 4th Battalion, the Royal Fusiliers, and is awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions on 23 August 1914, at Mons, Belgium.
Nimy Bridge is being defended by a single company of the 4th Royal Fusiliers and a machine-gun section with Dease in command. The gunfire is intense and the casualties very heavy, but the lieutenant continues to fire in spite of his wounds, until he is hit for the fifth time and is carried away.
Dease wins the first Victoria Cross to be awarded in the Great War and he receives it on the first day of the first significant British encounter in that war.
When Lieutenant Dease has been mortally wounded, Private Sidney Godley offers to defend the Railway Bridge while the rest of the section retreats and is also awarded the Victoria Cross. He is taken prisoner of war.
Dease is buried at St. Symphorien Military Cemetery, 2 kilometres east of Mons, Belgium. He is remembered with a plaque under the Nimy Railway Bridge, Mons and in Westminster Cathedral. His name is on the wayside cross in Woodchester, Stroud, Gloucestershire, on a cross at Exton, Rutland and on a plaque installed in St. Martin's Church, Culmullen, County Meath. His Victoria Cross is displayed at the Royal Fusiliers Museum in the Tower of London. Victoria Cross holders are being honoured with commemorative paving stones. Dease's is the first to be unveiled on August 23, 2014 at Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin.
Dease is portrayed in the BBC Three series Our World War (2014) by Dominic Thorburn.
Categories: Irish History, Wars & Rebellions | Tags: BBC Three, Belgium, British Army, Coole, County Meath, County Westmeath, Dublin, Exton, Glasnevin Cemetery, Gloucestershire, Lieutenant, Maurice Dease, Mons, Nimy, Our World War, Prisoner of War, Royal Fusiliers, Royal Military College Sandhurst, Rutland, Sidney Godley, St. Symphorien Military Cemetery, Stonyhurst College, Stroud, Tower of London, Victoria Cross, Wayside Cross, Westminster Cathedral, Wimbledon College, Woodchester, World War I | Permalink.
Father Willie Doyle, an Irish Jesuit priest, is killed in action on August 16, 1917, during the World War I.
Born William Joseph Gabriel Doyle in Dalkey, County Dublin, on March 3, 1873, Doyle is the youngest of seven children of Hugh and Christine Byrne Doyle. He is educated at Ratcliffe College, Leicester. After reading St. Alphonsus' book Instructions and Consideration on the Religious State he is inspired to enter the priesthood and is ordained a Jesuit priest in 1907. He serves for five years on the mission staff.
Doyle serves in the Royal Army Chaplains' Department of the British Army during World War I, appointed as a chaplain to 48 Brigade of the 16th Irish Division. During the Battle of Loos Doyle is caught in a German gas attack and for his conduct is mentioned in dispatches. A recommendation for a Military Cross is rejected as "he had not been long enough at the front." Instead, Doyle is presented with the parchment of merit of the 49th Infantry Brigade (Irish). He is killed in the Battle of Langemarck, on August 16, 1917. Father Doyle's body is never recovered but he is commemorated at Tyne Cot Memorial in Belgium.
General William Bernard Hickie, the commander-in-chief of the 16th Irish Division, describes Doyle as "one of the bravest men who fought or served out here." Doyle is awarded the Military Cross for his bravery during the assault on the village of Ginchy. He is recommended for a posthumous Victoria Cross and Distinguished Service Order but is awarded neither. Doyle is proposed for canonisation in 1938, but this is not followed through.
A stained glass window dedicated to his memory is present in St. Finnian's Church, Dromin, County Louth.
Categories: Irish History, Religion, Wars & Rebellions | Tags: 16th (Irish) Division, 49th Infantry Brigade, Battle of Langemarck, Battle of Loos, Belgium, British Army, County Dublin, County Louth, Dalkey, Distinguished Service Order, Ginchy, Jesuit, Leicester, Military Cross, Ratcliffe College, Royal Army Chaplains' Department, St. Alphonsus, Tyne Cot Memorial, Victoria Cross, William Bernard Hickie, Willie Doyle, World War I | Permalink.