Lives of the First World War

13th August 1914 - 14th August 1914

From his army medal index card it can be seen that Private John O'Brien embarked for France with the 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Regiment on the 13th August 1914: At 6 pm on Tuesday 4th August 1914 the final orders to mobilize were received by the 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Regiment at Raglan Barracks, Devonport. On Friday 7th the first batch of 300 reservists from the Depot in Clonmel arrived at the barracks. This was followed by another batch the next day and a final batch on Sunday 9th. "Our reservists came streaming in to make up our war strength; cheerful, careless fellows of all types, some in bowler hats and smart suitings, others in descending scale down to the garb of tramps. Soon, like us, they were uniformed and equipped with field kits, and the change was remarkable. Smart sergeants and corporals and beribboned veterans of the South African war hatched out of that crowd of nondescript civilians, and took their place and duties as if they had never left the army..." ('There's a Devil in the Drum.' by John Lucy) "We are now practically ready and complete to proceed on active service." (2nd Battalion's War Diary) At 10.45 pm on Wednesday August 12th, "A" and "B" companies left the barracks and entrained at Devonport station where at 12.15 am on Thursday 13th they left for a "destination unknown". "C" and "D" companies followed on a second train about an hour later. "A" and "B" companies arrived in Southampton at 7am on 13th August, followed shortly after by "C" and "D" companies. The battalion embarked on the SS Herschel at 9pm. "No Naval Officer was present to hand the ship over to us and allot berths. As a result a dug-out Naval Officer appeared on the scene about midnight and then wanted to shift all the companies to make room for another unit. We steamed out with the Connaught Rangers all mixed up with us and yet on the following morning, it was found that two portions of the lower deck (had been) unoccupied and capable of holding 500 men." At 5.15 am on the 14th August 1914, the 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Regiment sailed from Southampton to Boulogne on the SS Herschel. "As we commenced to cross the channel at 3 pm, an escort of cruisers joined us, 3 on the north of our tracks and 10 on the South. (We) arrived in Boulogne about 6 pm and marched to a rest camp about 3 miles distant." (from War Diary of the 2nd Battalion, The Royal Irish Regiment, August 1914-February 1915)

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