More about Francis Donaghue

For reasons unknown this man is not listed on the original Dundee Roll of Honour.

2264 LCpl  Francis Donaghue 2^nd Bn Royal Munster Fusiliers, (Prev 7^th Bn RMF in Gallipoli)

Francis is reported on GWD RoH as a Dundee man who enlisted with an Irish Regiment but as outlined in previous stories of Dundonians association with Irish Regiments this is yet another example of missing records and having to embark on lateral research strands to attempt to piece together a story of the man.

In this respect findings are extremely sparse.  There is no birth or marriage record for a Francis Donoghue in Dundee nor any Census record for Dundee, Bothwell or Hamilton. What we do know is Francis Donaghue did serve in the Royal Munster Fusiliers,  initially with the 7^th Bn in Gallipoli in 1915 where the Bn fought at Suvla Bay,  Scimitar Hill and Hill 60,  (the Gallipoli Hill 60, not to be confused with that at Zillibeke in Flanders).During this time the 7^th Bn was severely denuded of manpower due to casualties and at the end of the Gallipoli campaign were absorbed by the 6^th Bn RMF.  It was during this time that Francis was wounded as we can see a Casualty Wounding Report of 17 Sept 1915.  This wound was presumably serious enough as to warrant his evacuation to UK where he is treated and subsequently recovers.

Following recovery he is posted to join the 2^nd Bn RMF who are part of 1^st Division and were one of the first units to deploy as part of the BEF in 1914.  They had been present at all of the major encounters of 1914 and 1915 including  Mons,  Aisne,  Ypres, Givenchy le La Bassee,  Aubers Ridge,  Loos to name just a few.  It is in time for the 1916 encounter at the Somme that Francis joins the Bn as a replacement.  And it is at the attack by 2 RMF on the Intermediate line between a point slightly North of Bazentin le Petit and Becourt Wood that Francis meets his end.   He is killed in action on 24 August 1916 and his body is not recovered and he is yet another of out casualties listed on the Thiepval Memorial to the missing of the Somme

The fact that I can find no evidence to connect this man with Dundee does not in or of itself discount the fact that he may well have been,  as the GWD RoH suggests,  born in Dundee.  The absence of records may be down to simple errors in spellings of name or other details.  Working on the principle that at some stage this man was documented on the historic RoH to have Dundee connection  this brief account of his war is put forward