8391 Sgt John Moran Prince of Wales Leinster Regiment (Royal Canadians)

John was not Dundonian,  being born and raised in Ireland and he was a Regular Army soldier serving in the 2nd Bn of the Leinster Regiment based in Cork when War was declared. The Bn mobilised and landed at St Nazaire in September 1914 and as part of the initial Regular Army BEF the Bn fought at the first Battle of the Aisne and it was at this point in November 1914 that John was posted missing in action and later in early 1915 reported as a POW in German hands. It is only on 11 Feb 1919 John is reported as repatriated to UK from POW status and in a month almost to the day, (13 March 1919),  he is reported to have died and his Next of Kin is recorded as his wife Elizabeth resident at Popes Quay, Cork, Ireland

I have mentioned previously how difficult it can be to find Service Records as around 70% of the records of Great War servicemen were lost to fire in the Blitz of London in WW2. For some inexplicable reason I have also found that the search for records for men serving in Irish regiments appears, anecdotally at least, to be even more difficult with what feels to me to be much greater than 70% lost. My own researches would appear to yield only just a little  more than 10% success in finding the records of soldier who served in Irish regiments.

It is also difficult in some cases to establish just what connection there might be between the man and Dundee. In John’s case we are faced with what appears on the surface to be a “double difficulty”  Firstly, that being Irish in an Irish Regiment his records are apparently lost and secondly, that at first glance there appears little or no connection to Dundee.

However he is interred in Dundee, at the Eastern Cemetery,  and I have attached a plan of the cemetery showing the section where John now lies which in part illustrates a connection to our City. Why interred in Dundee ? well, his death certificate shows he Died in Dundee War Hospital, (Dundee Royal Infirmary), on 13 March just a month after his repatriation following his time as a POW.

Interestingly,  his death registry entry shows he died of Pneumonia as a consequence of Influenza which given the timeline of his illness, where he was hospitalised and the subsequent deterioration and demise to complicating Pneumonia would support the premise the John may have been incubating the Flu virus on his way home from POW camp and that the conclusion that this would have been a casualty of the Spanish Flu Pandemic then raging throughout Europe, the UK and wider afield is likely.

The connection of John to Dundee takes a further twist as later in 1919 his wife Elizabeth is now recorded as living,  not any longer in Cork , but now at 2 Westfield Avenue just off Perth Road,  Dundee and this is documented on the Pension Record Card for John which further supports an assumption that the events leading to Johns death in DRI were in fact attributable to his service, in particular, I assume, his POW time or release therefrom