4th Battalion Royal Irish Regiment

[newburychap]

From the Long Long Trail:
4th (Extra Reserve) Battalion
August 1914 : in Kilkenny. A training unit, it moved within a few days of declaration of war to Queenstown. In May 1915, moved to England, based at Gosport. Returned to Ireland September 1915 and moved to Fermoy. May 1916 moved back to Queenstown. In April 1918 the bn moved to England and joined Irish Reserve Brigade at Larkhill.

Your lad was only 17 when he died (sickness or accident?) so was not old enough to be sent overseas - the war would probably have been over before he got there.  He may have lied about his age when he joined the Leinsters - then been found out and sent to this training unit until he was old enough to fight.

The enlistment info etc is from Soldiers who died in the Great War (avaiable on most genealogy info subscription sites).

On Ancestry you can see his entry in the Soldiers' Effects Register - which shows that he died in the Military Hospital at Queenstown and that his next of kin was his father Paul.

[MaxD]

All the records for the William you cited in your original post relate to the son of Paul and Catherine (Kate in 1901).  If you are sure that this is "your" William, then the fact that he isn't with his family in 1911 is not unusual, and you should, I suggest, ignore it.  The other 1911 William Keogh may have been one of the others who served in the Royal Irish or indeed in another regiment so the first thing to decide is whether you are content that William, son of Paul and Catherine , born in Kings County in 1899/1900 is yours.

maxD

[Munch]

To everyone who has pointed me in the right direction- a huge thank you.

[Munch]

Hi again.....
I'm having a hard time convincing an interested party that Private William Keogh did, in fact, die in the military hospital in Queenstown, (Cork). For some reason, my interested party is convinced that Private Keogh died as a result of throwing himself in front of a train,and that it was all a huge cover up by the military.... Could there be any truth in what he claims? The plot thickens..... 

[John915]

Good morning,

Both are possible, he may have thrown himself in front of the train. Then died later in the hospital of his injuries. A search of the local papers of the day will tell you if the train incident is true.

John915

[heywood]

Perhaps the death certificate would also help you.

[Munch]

As we speak, my interested party is looking for the death cert....
Thank you for all your help. It really is appreciated.   

[Marksmurff]

There a web site in northern ireland has a lot of the irish records