RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: healyjfch on Sunday 18 June 17 16:02 BST (UK)
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Were Bog Soldiers military or civil ? Were bog soldiers part of a regiment ?
He came from Co Galway to Co Tipperary and worked in the bog cutting turf.
During WW2 fuel was in short supply.
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There was no such Military title as Bog Soldier.
It's possible this is the Irish equivalent to a Bevan Boy.
These were young men of military age who were prevented from joining because they were needed to work the mines.
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could it be a typo/transcription error for "Boy" soldier?
My mother's family had a Boy soldier - he was at a school for sons of soldiers, and he joined the army aged 14 in about 1916. I understand they weren't sent to the front until 16.
though, from what you say about turf-cutting, BOG sounds more likely . .
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I understand they weren't sent to the front until 16
Overseas service started at age 19 in WW1.
WW2 had Cadets but they were not part of the Regular Army.
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The song Peat Bog Soldiers recorded by The Dubliners and others is German in origin (Die Moorsoldaten) and is linked to prisoners in Nazi moorland labour camps in Lower Saxony:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peat_Bog_Soldiers
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The song Peat Bog Soldiers recorded by The Dubliners and others is German in origin (Die Moorsoldaten) and is linked to prisoners in Nazi moorland labour camps in Lower Saxony:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peat_Bog_Soldiers
I loved that song - had it on a very old E.P. Ian Campbell Group
with "We will Overcome" and "Viva la Quince Brigada" and others
(a relic of the folk enthusiasm of the 1960s)
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He was born in 1920. Too old for Boy soldier. I'm now thinking that Bog soldier was a local name for men employed during the war to work at turf cutting.
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Was the term learned from family oral history or do you have a document.?
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http://www.heartland.ie/articles/early-days-kildare-scheme-and-turf-camps Broken link.
Try-
https://www.bordnamonalivinghistory.ie/article-detail/early-days-the-kildare-scheme-and-the-turf-camps/
This link may be of interest although it refers to Co Kildare.
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Southern Ireland was neutral in WW2 this period was known as "The Emergency":-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emergency_(Ireland) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emergency_(Ireland))
Blue
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He was born in 1920. Too old for Boy soldier. I'm now thinking that Bog soldier was a local name for men employed during the war to work at turf cutting.
Not too old, There were still Boy Service units in the British Army into the 1950s. I recall visiting one, at Beachley, near Chepstow, in 1953.