Lives of the First World War

Type	Name
First Names	Martin Joseph
Initials	MJ
Last Name	Mcdonnell
Source	2782453

Gender	Source
Male

Address	Country	Type	Date	Source
Newpark House, Kilmeague, Co. Kildare	Ireland	parents address	known 1917

Service	Number	Unit	Section	Rank	Source
British Army	7937	Guards		Corporal Lance Serjeant
British Army		Royal Irish Rifles		Second Lieutenant

Name	Relationship	Dates	Source
Ina McDonnell	mother
Farrell McDonnell	father

Name	Relationship	Dates	Source
Francis McDonnell	brother	1894

Title	Connected by	More information
Medal Index Card
Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) Casualty Records	Imperial1
Ireland Census 1911 Transcription	Adrienne2953
Ireland: National Roll of Honour 1914-1921 Transcription	Adrienne2953
Soldiers died in the Great War 1914-1919 Transcription	Adrienne2953
Ireland Census 1901 Transcription	Adrienne2953

Reference	Connected by	More information
Royal Irish Rifles 1914-1918	Adrienne2953

Title	Connected by	More information
Dublin Officer	James72822
Second Lieutenant Martin Joseph Mc Donnell	James72822

ID: 2782453

Reference: WO372/12

Title: Medal Index Card

Description: Medal index cards were created by the Army Medal Office towards the end of the First World War. They record the medals that men and women who served in the First World War were entitled to claim.

URL: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/Details?uri=D3796678
IWM is not responsible for the content of external websites. Please note that some sources will require payment to view.

UPP: GBM/MCI/2785370

Credit: © The National Archives

ID: 7152963

Reference: CWGCCASUALIWM

Title: Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) Casualty Records

Description: The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) commemorate First World War servicemen and women and members of some civilian organisations who died before 31 August 1921 while in Commonwealth military service or of causes attributable to service.

Connected by: Imperial1

URL: http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/200490/
IWM is not responsible for the content of external websites. Please note that some sources will require payment to view.

UPP: GBM/CWGCCASUALIWM/152208

Additional: This record has been automatically matched to the Life Story by IWM, using rules based on name, rank, number, regiment and service.

Credit: © Commonwealth War Graves Commission

ID: 8515156

Title: Dublin Officer

Description: He was born in 1892 in Kilmeague: Newpark house and grew up in Aylesbury road in Dublin as well. He attended Beaumont College in Windsor Berkshire which is a Jesuit college as a boy and joined the fourth battalion the Connaught Rangers in 1911 as a second Lieutenant. So in all likelihood he would have had an English accent. I am not sure where he did his officer training. He resigned his commission in 1912 and became a Tea Trader. According to his army records, he tried to get a commission in the Army in November 1914 after the outbreak of war, but was turned down , probably because he had resigned a commission. He then enlists as a private (guardsman) in the second battalion the Irish Guards in March 1915 ( the same battalion as Jack Kipling, Rudyard Kipling's son who died at the battle of Loos, see the TV movie my boy Jack) and on the way to fight in the battle he absconded ( don't know why)., but he came back. He was then severely reprimanded and was posted to the front as a corpo

Connected by: James72822

ID: 8515166

Title: Second Lieutenant Martin Joseph Mc Donnell

Description: He was born in 1892 in Kilmeague: Newpark house and grew up in Aylesbury road in Dublin as well. He attended Beaumont College in Windsor Berkshire which is a Jesuit college as a boy and joined the fourth battalion the Connaught Rangers in 1911 as a second Lieutenant. So in all likelihood he would have had an English accent. I am not sure where he did his officer training. He resigned his commission in 1912 and became a Tea Trader. According to his army records, he tried to get a commission in the Army in November 1914 after the outbreak of war, but was turned down , probably because he had resigned a commission. He then enlists as a private (guardsman) in the second battalion the Irish Guards in March 1915 ( the same battalion as Jack Kipling, Rudyard Kipling's son who died at the battle of Loos, see the TV movie my boy Jack) and on the way to fight in the battle he absconded ( don't know why)., but he came back.

Connected by: James72822

Additional: He was then severely reprimanded and was posted to the front as a corporal and won the military medal somewhere. He served with the second battalion the Irish Guards on the Somme and was promoted to Sergeant and then in September 1916 commissioned in the field as a second Lieutenant and posted to the second Battalion the Royal Irish Rifles, where on patrol in January 1917 he had both legs blown off. and shortly afterwards died of his wounds. He is my granduncle. My Mum is Veronica Mc Donnell. I have a heartbreaking letter from his Mum Ina Cashel ( he had two younger brothers and a very much younger sister) written in the summer of 1917 saying she had been very ill but had recently looked through the bag containing Martin's personal effects which the war office had sent, but she wanted her sons military medal which was absent from his affects