John Watson Lake

[Sinann]

The Reg district is Callan which has a place called Modeshil.
https://www.swilson.info/regdistmap.php?gregdistid=28#

Not having any luck finding James in Roscommon

[Abhanliath]

There's something faintly fishy about the parents' relationship - I'm wondering if it might have been bigamous because of the name iffyness.

Is this the father, Robert, dying in Coolock in 1893, in 36 Richmond Road, just north of the Tolka?
https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/deaths_returns/deaths_1893/06003/4708074.pdf

Mary Watson Lake was voting in 74 Bride Street in 1908; she had a room on the fourth floor (this is in the Iveagh Trust Buildings)
https://databases.dublincity.ie/burgesses/viewdoc.php?burgessid=33677&djvupath=imagefiles&orderby=003495&imagefile=BR.1908.1893.jpg

[Kiltaglassan]

Modeshil civil parish, Co. Tipperary
https://www.townlands.ie/tipperary/modeshil1/

Has two townlands - Modeshil (Ayre) and Modeshil (Sankey)

https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/5477862#map=12/52.5450/-7.4813

[Abhanliath]

Ah, thanks, Kiltaglassan, south Tipp.
There's a John Lake and later an Ellen Lake voting from 63 Bride Street in 1914, and Mary Lake in 31 York Street to 1915.

[hanes teulu]

This is what I have of him so far…

Hunger Strike - Evening Herald, 15 Feb 1918i

[hanes teulu]

This is what I have of him so far…

Hunger Strike - Evening Herald, 15 Feb 1918i

Missed end of item when snipping!!

[Sinann]

The name as JJ Watson Lake fits well with the John Joseph Watson birth in Tipperary.

[Sinann]

His widow made an unsuccessful application for a military pension in 1932 and then disappears. He is mentioned in one of the Irish Volunteers - just one line in a Bureau of Military History witness statement.

He's there twice, second time as just Volunteer Watson Lake
https://www.militaryarchives.ie/collections/online-collections/bureau-of-military-history-1913-1921/reels/bmh/BMH.WS0267.pdf#page=12
Bottom of the page he saves them from becoming trapped in the cold room.

[Abhanliath]

Thank you, this is great. If only his wife had more nous, or knew how to find his former contacts. I have a feeling Seamus Pounch may have been in England at that stage, but surely she could've found out who were the (surviving) officers in Jacob's and asked them for references.
But some people felt if a man, or woman, had "gone Irregular" the comrades who'd gone the other way would be unwilling to give a reference - which I haven't found to be so, in the cases I've looked at. Poor girl, I wonder what happened to her and the kid.
This is her tragic application - the PDF at the bottom has her own letters
http://mspcsearch.militaryarchives.ie/detail.aspx?parentpriref=