A new book on the music of WWI, Who Answered the Bugle Call? - Kilbeggan and Neighbourhood during WWI, by Kilbeggan Heritage Group, was launch this week in Kilbeggan Library.
The launch was accompanied by samples of the music enjoyed by the men who went to war. Some of the recruits were closely linked to the music; for instance, members of the 2nd Battalion, Connaught Rangers, who launched in August 1914 what was to become the most popular of the war songs, ‘It’s a Long Way to Tipperary’.
Although the book is mainly a tribute to the largely forgotten war dead of Kilbeggan, it also examines surviving combatants and considers the affects of modern warfare upon the community.
Relief workers, many of them women, are among the groups whose outstanding resilience and achievements have been largely erased from public memory. One of the most prominent in the Midlands was undoubtedly Mrs Locke of Locke’s Distillery. She not only joined the band of voluntary dedicated Red Cross VAD nurses who went overseas to care for the wrecks of war, but went on to campaign for, and eventually govern, the newly established Red Cross Hospital at Bloomfield House, Mullingar.
Cases from similar sized towns in southern Westmeath and northern Offaly have also been studied when making comparisons with the Kilbeggan experiences. British Army Service and pension records have proved invaluable in this respect, providing not only the list of soldiers but also their regiments, details of backgrounds, occupations, ages, marital status, children, health details, and conduct reports.
Interesting stories emerge of men who escaped from probable slaughter on account of ill-health or who were discharged because of injuries caused by bizarre incidents such as sleep walking. There are amusing tales of recruits who adopted aliases and sad instances of men being killed in accidents on the mainland before they even embarked for Europe. Several underage boys feature, most of them being bailed out by anxious mothers armed with baptismal certificates - the standard proof of age.
One revealing fact emerging in the book is the extent to which army life extended beyond the typical war image of infantry soldiers charging out of trenches to a sergeant’s whistle. Many of the men from the Midlands were attached to units engaged in activities seldom mentioned in connection with the Great War - as veterinary workers, vehicle drivers, and maintenance operatives. Several were employed within the Royal Engineers as messengers and quarry-men or even functioned in the strange-sounding Inland Water Transport Corps.
With the centenary of the Great War approaching, it is hoped that the Kilbeggan Heritage Group’s publication written by Ray Metters and supported by Westmeath Community Development Limited will be among many which recall the names of both combatants and civilian involvement.
Well-known local historians Kathleen Flynn and Stan McCormack will be introducing and contributing to the launch. The book is available from normal outlets in Athlone, Mullingar, and Tullamore.
