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Post by groundhog on Apr 26, 2013 10:19:34 GMT
The Military Cross I got a list of post-1947 service personnel of the British forces who are buried in Ireland the other day. The first name on the list was intriguing being that of a Catholic Chaplain named Beauchamp, buried in Carlow and holder of the Military Cross. His date of death was 26th April so I've decided to start a thread on Irish holders of this award. The MC was instituted on 28th December 1914 as a gallantry award for Junior Officers (up to the rank of Captain) and Warrant Officers of the Army. In 1931 it was extended to members of the RAF in action on the ground and to officers up to the rank of Major and in 1993 it was extended to enlisted personnel, replacing the Military Medal. It could not be awarded posthumously until 1979. The medal is a silver Greek cross with splayed ends to the arms, suspended by a ring from a plain rectangular slotted ribbon suspension. The obverse has a smaller Greek cross at the centre mounted with the royal cypher of the reigning monarch and with an imperial crown at the ends of the cross arms. The reverse was plain until 1938, when the year of the act of bravery it commemorates was engraved on the bottom of the lower arm. The medal is issued un named. A ribbon bar was issued for subsequent awards. |
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Post by groundhog on Apr 26, 2013 11:01:04 GMT
Rt Rev. Monsignor Henry Beauchamp C.B.E., M.C., V.G.  Henry Beauchamp was born in Rosenallis, Co. Laois, on 9th June 1881. His father, was a farmer from the village and his mother, nee Mary Delaney, came from Ringstown, Mountrath. He was the eldest of three children and both his parents died when he was a few years old. The childrens’ guardian was an uncle, Fr. John Beauchamp, parish priest of Borris, Co. Carlow, who arranged with an Aunt who lived in Clara, Co. Offaly, to rear the three children. Henry received his early education at the Franciscan Brothers School at Clara. He continued his studies in Knockbeg College from 1897 to 1903 and studied for the Priesthood in Maynooth from 1903 to 1907, being ordained priest in St. Patrick's College, Carlow, on 4th April 1908. He was appointed to Portarlington as curate at the same time as the Golf Club was formed so he was the club’s first Hon. Secretary and vice-president the following year, Captain in 1910 and he was Hon. Secretary again in 1914. Fr. Beauchamp volunteered for an Army Chaplaincy and he joined the Royal Army Chaplains' Department in April 1916. He served with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in France and, in 1917, was awarded the M.C. or bravery under fire. In 1918, Fr Beauchamp requested a transfer to the Royal Air Force, which his Bishop was inclined to refuse, demanding Fr. Beauchamp’s return to Ireland. Bishop Keating, C.M.G., C.B.E., then Bishop in Ordinary to the Army, obtained permission for Fr. Beauchamp to remain with the Forces. Fr. Beauchamp transferred into the Royal Air Force in 1919 and took up his appointment at RAF Halton, in July. On arrival at the Mess he asked a man standing at the door to help him with his luggage. This the man readily did, and in return Fr. Beauchamp tipped him five shillings. Naturally the porter turned out to be Beauchamps new CO. Fr. Beauchamp was still at Halton when he was appointed Principal Chaplain in 1929. In 1940 he was appointed Papal Chamberlain and Vicar General, and later a Domestic Prelate. In 1945 he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire and he was also decorated with the Belgian Military Cross, the Czechoslovakian Medal of Merit First Class and the Military Cross First Class of Poland. In 1948 Monsignor Beauchamp attended a Leadership Course at Loyola Hall on completion of which he came home to Ireland for a holiday. He travelled from Dublin to Carlow to visit old school friends but on arrival he felt unwell and he was taken to St. Brigid's Hospital, Carlow. He died three days later, on 26th April, 1948, of pneumonia. He was interred in St. Mary's Cemetery, Carlow. Fr Beauchamp's MC appeared in the London Gazette Issue 30997 published on the 7th November 1918. Rev. Henry Beauchamp, A.C. Dept.
For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. Apart from his duties as chaplain, which he performed in a fearless, manner
under very-exposed conditions, he was always , in the fighting line and rendering assistance to the wounded. He won the admiration of all ranks.www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/30997/supplements/13146Photo; Portarlington Golf Club website |
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Post by groundhog on May 4, 2013 0:52:38 GMT
Distinguished Service Cross  The Royal Navy equivalent of the Military Cross is the Distinguished Service Cross. The award was originally created in 1901 as the Conspicuous Service Cross, for award to Warrant and Junior Officers of the Royal Navy. It was renamed the Distinguished Service Cross in October 1914, eligibility being extended to all naval officers below the rank of Lieutenant Commander. In 1931, the award was made available to members of the Merchant Navy and in 1940 eligibility was extended to non-naval personnel serving aboard a British vessel. Since the 1993 review of the honours system, as part of the drive to remove distinctions of rank in awards for bravery, the Distinguished Service Medal, formerly the third level decoration for ratings, has been discontinued. The DSC now serves as the third level award for gallantry at sea for all ranks. Since 1916, bars have been awarded to the DSC in recognition of the performance of further acts of gallantry meriting the award. Recipients are entitled to the post-nominal letters DSC. The DSC may be awarded posthumously and is granted in recognition of gallantry during active operations against the enemy at sea. This DSC is a plain silver cross with rounded edges, the obverse having a circular centre within which is the Royal Cypher of the reigning monarch at the time of award. From 1940 the year of issue has been engraved on lower limb of cross. The reverse is plain apart from the hallmark and the ribbon is attached via a hall-marked silver ring. The ribbon has three equal stripes of dark blue, white and dark blue. Francis Casey  Francis Casey was born in Clonmel, Co. Tipperary on 3rd August 1890. During the First World War he served in the Royal Naval Air Service, in No 3 Squadron, achieving the rank of Flight Commander. In total he shot down nine German aeroplanes over the Western Front between 17th March 1917 and 2nd May 1917, before dying in a flying accident on 11th August 1917. The Citation for his Distinguished Service Cross reads; “For conspicuous bravery and skill in attacking hostile aircraft on numerous occasions. On April 21st, 1917, he attacked a hostile two-seater machine at a range varying from 40 to 100 yards, and brought it down completely out of control. On April 23rd, 1917, on four different occasions during one flight, he attacked hostile machines, one of which was driven down in a spinning nose dive and another turning over on its side went down completely out of control. This Officer has driven down four machines completely out of control, and forced many others down.” Lt-Comdr Francis Casey, 3 Squadron RNAS, is buried in Adinkerke Military Cemetery, Belgium. Casey Photo; www.theaerodrome.com |
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Post by groundhog on May 6, 2013 17:28:54 GMT
[/img] 2/10th Royal Scots in Archangel 20th June 1919[/center] The Clonmel Chronicle of 27th August 1919 carried an article headlined “M.C. for Waterford Man”. It went on to say that Lieutenant William Bassett of 10th Bn, Royal Highlanders attached to 2/10th Bn Royal Scots had been awarded the Military Cross for gallantry in action in October 1918. The award was hardly unusual at the time except for the fact that William was fighting, not in Flanders, but in Russia, part of an almost forgotten campaign against the Bolsheviks by the Western Allies from 1918 to 1920. The North Russia Expedition was born out of the Revolution of 1917 and the subsequent capitulation of the Russian Army. The Western Alliance which now included the USA was driven by several motives. In north Russia there was at this stage a large stockpile of war matériel which had been sent to aid the Russian Army in their fight against the Germans. The allies wanted to prevent this stockpile from falling into Bolshevik or German hands. There was also a hope that by assisting the White Russians against the Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War that Bolshevism, seen as a threat to the natural order of things in the West, could be defeated and Russia kept in the war. Finally somewhere in Siberia was a formation known as the Czechslovak Legion which had been fighting in Russia since the outbreak of the war. These lads were supposed to have been evacuated to France to join their comrades on the Western Front but that agreement had been broken. The allied forces in Russia had a strength of about 13,000 mostly British and US troops, who supplied 6,000 and 5,000 men respectively. Canada and France provided about 1,000 men each. The force was supplied mainly through the port of Archangel and operated along the Dvina, Vaga, Onega and Yaomtsa Rivers and the Archangel Railway. Much of the rest of the terrain was impenetrable forest and marshland, the difficulties of the terrain being compounded during the winter months by the weather. Amongst the hodge-podge of units and formations that made up the North Russian Expedition was 2/10th Bn Royal Scots. The battalion had been formed in September 1914 from the excess of volunteers to the Territorial Army battalions. It had spent the entire war in Scotland and Ireland, providing drafts of fit men to the Western Front and being increasingly staffed by the wounded and war-weary. When detailed for Russia, the battalion had made up its numbers from many different units, among whom was Frederick Bassett of the Black Watch. It was during operations along the Dvina River that Frederick Bassett won his Military Cross. During September 1918, the battalion advanced on the village of Pless which was occupied by the Bolsheviks. This advance involved a march through marshland over several days that required enormous endurance by the men involved. At the end of it, the enemy had withdrawn from Pless to Nijne-Toimski, where they held a strong position. The small allied force was not strong enough to break through the Bolshevik positions and on the 27th the Royal Scots were withdrawn to a cluster of villages at Borok, which was put into a state of defence. In the marshy ground it was impossible to dig western front-style trenches so block-houses of logs and sand were constructed. On 2nd October the Borok garrison was weakened by the transfer of the American force on the far side of the Dvina to the Vaga front. In addition Royal Navy gunboats operating in support on the Dvina were withdrawn to Archangel before the river iced over for the winter. On 5th October, the Bolsheviks attacked the Royal Scots defences at Borok and it was during this battle that Bassett won his MC. During heavy shelling and with the village on fire he walked around his positions directing fire and encouraging his men. During a counter attack his men captured a Bolshevik machine-gun. His Military Cross was Gazetted on 29th July 1919. William Bassett was born in Waterford in 1884. His father George, was a wine merchant. Before the war William was a Civil Servant working in the Registry of Deeds in Dublin. He volunteered early in the war and was appointed to 10th Bn, The Black Watch in April 1915, serving in Salonika in 1916. He was attached to 2/10th Bn, Royal Scots for the North Russia expedition and was killed in action during an attack on the village of Topsa on 27th October 1918. The attack was carried out during a snowstorm and cost the Royal Scots 80 casualties to heavy machine gun fire. William Bassett has no known grave but he is commemorated on the Archangel Memorial in Russia and on his family headstone in Waterford. |
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Post by groundhog on May 18, 2013 18:40:40 GMT
[/img] The Distinguished Flying Cross[/center] The Distinguished Flying Cross was established on 3rd June 1918 and is awarded for "an act or acts of valour, courage or devotion to duty whilst flying in active operations against the enemy". Despite its late arrival on the scene over 1100 DFCs were awarded during the last five months of the Great War. Seventy Bars to the DFC were also awarded. Before the establishment of the DFC, air-crew were awarded the Military Cross. Major Tom Hazell, a Galwayman was one of a small group who were awarded both medals in the Great War. He also earned a Bar to his DFC. [/img][/center] Thomas Hazell was born in Roundstone, Co. Galway on 7th August 1892 and attended school in Tonbridge, Kent. He joined the South Irish Horse in 1914 at the outbreak of the First World War and was later commissioned into 7th Bn, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. In 1916 he transferred into the Royal Flying Corps where he survived a bad crash in training. Having qualified as a pilot, Hazell joined No. 1 Squadron in France and by August 1917 he had shot down 20 enemy aircraft. He was as awarded the Military Cross on 26th July 1917 for “conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. On several occasions he displayed marked courage and determination in attacking and destroying hostile aircraft..” There then followed a period as an instructor in the Central Flying School afte which Hazell took command of a flight of 24 Squadron, again in France. On 22 August 1918 he was verynearly shot down by German Ace, Ernest Udetwho claimed Hazell as his 60th Kill. Hazell limped his plane back to base, leaking petrol and riddled with bullets. By the end of the war Hazell had been decorated with the DFC and Bar and was permanently commissioned into the Royal Air Force. Both DFC and Bar citations appeared in the London Gazette of 2nd November 1918. DFC Citation [/b] This officer is conspicuous for his bravery and skill, having destroyed twenty enemy machines and four kite balloons. On one occasion, while attacking troops on the ground, he observed seven enemy scouts above him; he at once engaged them, shooting down one out of control. Some days later he, with another pilot, attacked a kite balloon, driving it down in flames; they then attacked a second balloon, driving it down in a deflated condition. Bar to DFC Citation [/b] This officer has accounted for twenty seven enemy machines and four kite balloons. On the 8th August he shot down two machines out of control, and destroyed a third in the air. In these combats he was so heavily engaged that all his instruments were wrecked, and only one strand of his elevator control cable was intact. Relentless in attack, Capt. Hazell displays disregard of personal danger in a marked degree. With 43 Kills he was the fifth highest-scoring British Ace of the war and the as the other four had been killed, the highest-scoring survivor. In February 1919, by this time an Acting Major, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order. DSO Citation [/b] A brilliant fighter, distinguished for his bold determination and rare courage, he has accounted for twenty-nine enemy machines, twenty being destroyed and nine driven down out of control; he has also destroyed ten balloons. On 4th September he rendered exceptionally valuable service in leading his flight to attack hostile balloons that were making a certain road impassable. Within an hour three of these balloons were destroyed, Major Hazell accounting for two. Hazell Commaded 203 Squadron for a short time after the war, serving in Iraq. During WW2 he commanded a Home Guard Company in England. He returned to Ireland after the warand died in Galway in 1946. |
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