Lives of the First World War

WW1 Royal Irish Regiment cap badge

WW1 Royal Irish Regiment cap badge

British soldiers at the Battle of Mons, August 1914

Plaque at the base of the Celtic cross memorial to the 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Regiment at La Bascule crossroads which was erected in 1923.

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 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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.

St Symphorien Military Cemetery, Mons, Belgium, where 65 unknown British soldiers are buried

Unknown Royal Irish Regiment Soldier buried in St Symphorien Military Cemetery, Mons

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

Grave registration form for St Symphorien Military Cemetery with 12 unknown soldiers of the Royal Irish Regiment listed upon it - one of them identified as a Lance Corproal. This tallies almost exactly with the number of soldiers of the Royal Irish Regiment who were recorded as having been killed in action on the 23rd August and who have no known grave. Thus it seems quite likely that William Roche is one of those buried in St Symphorien Military Cemetery.

Unknown Royal Irish Regiment soldiers buried in St Symphorien Military Cemetery, Mons

The grave of an unknown Royal Irish Regiment Lance Corporal in St Symphorien Military Cemetery. There were three RIRgt Lance Corporals killed in the fighting in Mons on the 23rd August: John S. Corri (No. 10255), Ernest Stretton (No. 7510) and William Roche. Thus there is a 1 in 3 chance that this is William Roche's grave. Even if that is not the case, he is almost certainly one of the other unknown RIRgt soldiers buried in the cemetery.