Lives of the First World War

The grave of Captain Fergus George Arthur Forbes in St-Symphorien Cemetery, August 2015

WW1 Royal Irish Regiment cap badge

The road south on the western edge of Bois La Haut, Mons. The Royal Irish Regiment were hotly pursued down this road by the Germans on the afternoon of the 23rd August 1914.

WW1 Connaught Rangers cap badge

The Memorial to the Royal Irish Regiment at Mons overlooks the ground on which the 2nd Battalion fought on the 23rd August 1914. It was unveiled by Lord Ypres on 11th November 1923.

The plaque at the base of the Mons memorial to the 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Regiment. The memorial was unveiled on 11th November 1923 at La Bascule crossroads.

Castle Forbes, the ancestral home of The Honourable Fergus George Arthur Forbes.

SS Herschel, the ship which transported the Royal Irish Regiment across the channel to France. They disembarked in Boulogne on 14th August 1914.

La Bascule crossroads, Mons, Belgium, where a small detachment of the 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Regiment held out for many hours against a far superior force of the enemy.

The area to the east of Mons where the 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Regiment first came in contact with the enemy.

Map of the Battle of Mons from The Campaigns and History of the Royal Irish Regiment, Vol.II (drawn by Major St.Leger)

Restaurant Leon on Chausee de Binche on the site of the former Chateau Gendebien which was used as a Red Cross hospital at the time of the Battle of Mons

The area around the hospital and cemetery, to the east of Mons, where the Royal Irish Regiment first came in contact with the enemy

The Maison Communale in Hyon, which was the 8th Brigade's Headquarters on 23rd August 1914.

The pave (pa-vay) road along which the Royal Irish Regiment hurriedly retreated with the Germans close behind around 6pm on 23rd August 1914, Mons, Belgium. These roads were hard on the feet of the retreating soldiers of the BEF, especially those reservists whose feet had grown soft and had not had sufficient time to grow accustomed to day-after-day of hard marching.

WW1 Royal Irish Regiment cap badge

St Symphorien Military Cemetery, Mons, Belgium, where Captain Fergus George Arthur Forbes is buried

Grave registration document for St Symphorien Military Cemetery with Captain Forbes's name on it.

Grave registration document for St Symphorien Military Cemetery with Captain Forbes's name on it.

The La Ferté-sous-Jouarre Memorial commemorates 3,740 officers and men of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) who fell at the battles of Mons, Le Cateau, the Marne and the Aisne between the end of August and early October 1914 and have no known graves...The memorial was designed by George H. Goldsmith, a decorated veteran of the Western Front, and unveiled by Sir William Pulteney, who had commanded the III Corps of the BEF in 1914, on 4 November 1928. (From CWGC Cemetery Details)

Fergus George Arthur Forbes in his school days. From "The Oratorian", the Oratory School magazine, 2014.

Raglan Barracks, Devonport, where the 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Regiment was based prior to their embarkation for France in August 1914.