Family honours great uncle with journey to The Somme
A LOCAL family made an emotional trip to Pozieres Military Cemetery on The Somme recently, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of their great uncle, who died in battle in World War I.
Siblings Anne Sheil, Kevin Sheil, Declan Sheil and Helen Delaney travelled to northern France, along with Helen’s daughter Orla and her husband Shay to visit the World War I Memorial where Corporal James Nolan’s name is inscribed. The young soldier left Ballycanew at the age of 19 and was dead just four years later. Like many others, he met his fate during the horror of the German Spring Offensive, at the Somme in 1918.
Anne Sheil explained that the family had begun to look into their history in recent years and said that the more they found out about James, the more they wanted to know.
‘There are still many gaps in our research which we will continue to try and fill. We know that James was decorated in 1917 and awarded the Military Medal, for bravery in battle on land. He was listed in the London Gazette on July 18, 1917, and afterwards was promoted to Corporal. It would be nice to think that maybe Corporal James Nolan got home to Ballycanew for a short visit before returning to fight in the trenches of northern France.’
The family knew that James was a twin and one of nine children. When the war began in 1914, he was 19 and had been a farm labourer for at least three years.
‘He was probably looking for something worthwhile and exciting to do; an adventure; an income; an escape from the quiet village of Ballycanew. So he went in to Gorey town and enlisted to fight in a war that was generally expected to be over by Christmas.’
After training, with fighting escalating, he was dispatched to the front. In 1915, Private James Nolan, Machine Gun Corps, 21st Infantry, wrote a threeline will, leaving his few effects to his mother in Ballycanew.
‘Just seeing those pen and ink words of a 20-year-old facing the horror of war, knowing his chances of survival were not good, needless to say, gave us all a jolt,’ said Anne.
The German Spring Offensive saw horrific fighting for days, with massive losses, and both sides in physical and moral collapse. James Nolan was killed in action on Palm Sunday, March 24, 1918, just a few months before the war ended.
Exactly 100 years later, his family visited his memorial for the first time, leaving a Wexford flag beneath his name.
‘We cried, we smiled. It was a sunny, spring day in northern France and the cemetery was beautifully well kept. But no amount of research could have prepared us for the rows and rows of headstones dedicated to hundreds and thousands of young men who, like James, wanted to do something exciting and worthwhile. And it was all completely for nothing.’
Anne said that after all of their re- search they decided that they had to go to Pozieres for the 100th anniversary of James’ death and were delighted that they had done so. The day they left to come home was Palm Sunday and they brought some Palm home from Amiens Cathedral to their mother Brigid, James’ niece.
‘Hopefully we can get it to grow back home in Wexford so that, ‘at the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them’. And we must.’