Appendix 5
Easter Rising casualties - where are they buried?
The civilians, including various of the rebel casualties, are mostly buried in Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin. Some may be buried in other civilian cemeteries.
The soldiers should in theory all be in Grangegorman military cemetery in Dublin. This cemetery predates WWI. However, although many are indeed in Grangegorman, others are all over Dublin and a few other places besides. This is due in part to there being temporary hospitals in Dublin in any event to deal with WWI casualties, and also emergency aid posts being created to deal with the casualties of the Rising. The fatalities were often buried in the nearest convenient cemetery. It is interesting that 2nd Lt Neilan is buried in Glasnevin, ie the civilian cemetery, not in the Grangegorman military cemetery.
Many of those who died were buried initially in the garden of Dublin castle as a temporary measure. (There was an emergency hospital in Dublin Castle for treating officers. James Connolly was also treated there after the surrender.) The relatives could claim the body and arrange to have it reburied wherever they wished. Sometimes this would have been in Dublin, sometimes further afield. In theory, if the body was not claimed or the relatives did not wish to rebury it, then the military casualties should have gone to Grangegorman military cemetery and the civilian ones to Glasnevin. However, five army officers remained buried at Dublin Castle in a marked plot until 1962 when they were moved to Grangegorman military cemetery. The reason for them being left in the grounds of Dublin Castle for so long is a mystery as no-one is buried at Dublin Castle. One of the five, 2nd Lt Pinfield, even has a memorial plaque in St Patrick’s cathedral in Dublin. He was attached to the 10th Reserve Cavalry Regt at the Curragh and was ordered up to Dublin when the Rising began and was fatally wounded on Easter Monday.
In Dublin, there are some soldiers buried in Dean’s Grange cemetery, which would have been the most convenient destination for fatalities from the temporary hospitals in Blackrock, including Capt Dietrichsen of the Sherwood Foresters. There are others buried in the St Jerome cemetery.
There are seven soldiers buried in the “other ranks” burial ground at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham which is again somewhat odd. The Royal Hospital was an old soldiers’ home, not a hospital in the medical meaning of the word. Presumably these men died in an emergency medical facility at the Royal Hospital. There is one officer, Lt Col Blackburn, in the officer’s plot but he is a fatality from the sinking of the RMS Leinster in October 1918 and was allowed to be buried there because the Lord Lieutenant expressly ordered that he should be, as he had been a staff officer to various generals in Ireland.
Perhaps the most bizarre of the military burials is the five soldiers buried in a mass grave in the grounds of the former Dr Steevens hospital, which is today the grounds of the offices of the Eastern Health Board. This is neither a cemetery nor any sort of church grounds but they are still there today.
Of those buried outside Dublin, there are:
- Five in Northern Ireland
- Pte FWW Knox, RInnF, Breandrum, Enniskillen
- 2nd Lt JH Calvert, Seagoe cemetery, Portadown
- Pte JA Thompson, RDF, Kinawley Church of Ireland cemetery, County Fermanagh
- 2nd Lt CL Crockett, RInnF, City cemetery, Londonderry
- Pte A McClelland, RIR, Greyabbey cemetery, County Down
- One in county Cork
- Major PH Acheson, Castlehyde Church of Ireland cemetery, County Cork (accidentally shot by an army checkpoint)
- In England:
- Lt Percy Perry, Sherwood Foresters, Nottingham General Cemetery
- Lt WV Hawken, Sherwood Foresters, Hanwell cemetery, Hanwell, Middlesex
- Col HTW Allatt, Special List, Aldershot Military Cemetery
As a follow on, perhaps it is appropriate to mention 2nd Lt LH Booth, RAF, died 13th November 1918 and who is buried in Omagh, County Tyrone. His grave is the only remnant of an RAF airfield that existed outside Omagh and which was used for aerial surveillance during the War of Independence. He was in fact Canadian.
The final section is here