‘LOST’ GRAVE OF WWI HERO DISCOVERED BY FAMILY
Memorial to Somme veteran Bernard Flood erected after years of searching
THE forgotten grave of a hero of the Battle of the Somme has been found after years of desperate searching by his family.
And last weekend, on the anniversary of the first day of the Somme, Michael Molyneux stood by the Calvary resting place of his grandad, Private Bernard Flood of the Royal Irish Rifles, and said a silent prayer for a man who saved him from life in an orphanage a lifetime ago.
For years, Bernard’s final resting place was unknown and unmarked but a story in the Drogheda Independent seven years ago sparked a search that ended with a fitting memorial being erected over Bernard’s grave. ‘It’s a special moment for me. When my mother died, myself and my brothers were going to have to go to the orphanage in Fair Street but Bernard took us in to his home on Platin Road. I will always remember and thank him for that. So today, is my way of saying thanks grandad,’ Michael (83) stated.
Private Bernard Flood could well be described as the man that died ‘ twice’ as during action on the Western Front in 1915, he was gunned down by German machine guns in an area between British and French lines.
He was ‘missing’ for two months and reported as dead, but was discovered in a French hospital.
THE forgotten grave of a hero of the Battle of the Somme has been found after years of desperate searching by his family.
And last weekend, on the anniversary of the first day of the Somme, Michael Molyneux stood by the Calvary resting place of his grandad, Private Bernard Flood of the Royal Irish Rifles, and said a silent prayer for a man who saved him from life in an orphanage a lifetime ago.
For years, Bernard’s final resting place was unknown and unmarked but a story in the Drogheda Independent seven years ago sparked a search that ended with a fitting memorial being erected over Bernard’s grave.
‘It’s a special moment for me. When my mother died, myself and my brothers were going to have to go to the orphanage in Fair Street but Bernard took us in to his home on Platin Road. I will always remember and thank him for that. So today, is my way of saying thanks grandad,’ Michael (83) stated.
Private Bernard Flood could well be described as the man that died ‘ twice’ as during action on the Western Front in 1915, he was gunned down by German machine guns in an area between British and French lines.
Badly injured in the legs, he was stretchered to a hospital run by nuns behind the French lines and remained there for two months.
Nobody knew what had happened to him and a telegram was sent back to Drogheda, stating that he had died in action.
But then word came through that he was alive and he was transported back to the British Military Hospital in Leopardstown, before coming home.
A former British army officer was working in McCann’s mills on the quays and he gave Bernard a job and he worked there for some years.
Michael was just a young boy when he went to live with Bernard and his wife Marcella. His father and then his mother died within a short period of time and the family were destined to enter the orphanage until Bernard took them in.
‘He was self sufficient,’ Michael stated. ‘He grew all his own vegetables in his back garden and he had a military pension of 12 shillings a week.’
When Bernard had to give up work, Michael left school at 14, going to work in McNamara’s Bottling Company and then the Central Bar before going to work in London and returning to education.
He’d send Bernard whatever money he could to help him, but he moved from Drogheda to Dublin after the death of his wife. He died there in 1975 but was brought home to be buried in Calvary.
Michael paid for his funeral and recalled the ceremony, close to a big tree as you entered the graveyard.
An iron cross was placed on the grave, the only marker.
‘I was in London when he died. I remember getting a call at 6.45am on a Sunday morning to say he was very unwell. Half an hour later I got the call to say he had died.’
A decade ago, Michael was diagnosed with leukaemia and was given three months to live.
His desire to visit Bernard’s grave became paramount, but by then all trace of it had gone. He searched, his son, author, Derek, searched, but as Michael remarked ‘we found a brick wall, it seemed as if it was gone.’
Then they contacted the Drogheda Independent and made an appeal. A local man helped in the search, but he too was getting nowhere.
Then, one day, he came across the butt of an iron cross in an overgrown area and when Michael came to check, he recognised it - they had found Bernard’s grave - almost by chance.
Michael’s battle with cancer was successful as well and to this day, remains on medication.
‘My illness sparked the whole thing again. I felt Bernard needed a proper grave with a headstone on it. I told my family the story and the search began.’
‘I really wanted to see this,’ he states. He recalled Bernard as a very upright man, a typical soldier, who’d go down to read the names on the memorial on Mary Street, seeing his old friends who never came back from the conflict. ‘ He’d go to pay homage to those that fell,’ Michael’s son, Derek, states.
‘I left Drogheda in 1950 but I cherish my days with Bernard on the Platin Road. We played football in Marian Park and Collins field and Mr Burke was a milkman, where the garage is now beside the Pheasant. I remember Dermot Reilly’s bookmakers and Malocca’s chipper.’
‘I went to St Mary’s school and had pals like Dessie Fuller and Joey Maher and a son of Sgt Byrne who lived at Mt St Oliver.’
He recalled Bernard bringing him to Croke Park for the first time,August 1948, when Mick Higgins inspired a Cavan win over Louth.
‘It was hard to get to this day but we finally have a stone over Bernard’s grave,’ he concluded,