Military Burials in St. Patrick's Cemetery, Clonmel

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Cemeteries are great places to go to find out obscure bits of history. Take note of interesting burials and do a little research and you'll find some great stuff like the link between the burial place of the Fitzgerald family and one of the worst maritime disasters of WW2 or the story of a Clonmel-born RAF pilot and the Danish resistance.

St. Patrick's Cemetery

The land for the new cemetery was purchased from James Jameson, Malahide, Dublin. The cemetery opened for burials in 1886 and the first interment was that of Robert Sargint in Section 7 Row Ja, Grave 56 on 30th August 1886. So far the oldest military burial I have come across is that of Sgt Robert Humphreys, Royal Irish Regiment, who died 25th July 1889.

RAF Commemorations
190476 Flying Officer Charles Dillon 2/ 58/Gb



Charles Dillon

Charles Dillon served in 299 Squadron RAF. The Squadron was formed on 4th November 1943 from 'C' flight 297 Squadron at RAF Stoney Cross, Hampshire. 299 was a Special Operations squadron, dropping Allied Agents into Occupied Europe and supplying resistance groups. They were equipped with Short Stirling Bombers. In addition 299 Squadron dropped Paratroopers and towed gliders on D-Day, at Arnhem and on Operation Varsity, the Rhine crossing in January 1945. After the war the squadron took up transport duties, ferrying occupation troops to Denmark & Norway and service personnel home to Britain.

On the night of 2nd/3rd April 1945 three Stirlings of 299 Squadron were tasked to drop weapons to the Danish resistance on Orø Island in the Isefjorden. The cloud cover was very thick and two of the planes turned back, while Stirling LJ942 carried on, piloted by P/O Charles Dillon. He had joined 299 Squadron in May 1944, and they had flown with supplies and troops on D-Day, to Arnhem and during the attack across the Rhine. In addition to that they had flown several sorties with supplies for the resistance movements in France, Holland and Norway - and two bombing raids. Unable to establish their position, Dillon started circling over Hundested and came under German AA fire from Melby. His plane was hit in the tail section and began to lose height and crashed into Roskilde Fjord. 600 metres north of Stenø and about 100 metres from land. W/O Thomas McBeath, a Canadian, was killed in the crash with F/Sgt. Harold Farmer (flight engineer) and F/Sgt. Cyril Laing (wireless operator) seriously injured. Dillon suffered minor head injuries. The two other survivors, W/O H. J. Hart (navigator) and W/O R. A. Hills (rear gunner) were unhurt. The five airmen waded ashore and with the help of some fishermen Hills and Hart were transported to Sweden while the three injured men were taken to hospital in Frederikssund. The Germans picked up Farmer and Laing in the Hospital while Dillon was taken out of the back door. Dillon spent a couple of days hiding at a farm before he went on to Sweden.On 21st July 1945 he returned to Denmark on a mission and met some of the Danes who had helped him escape.

On 7th October 1945 Dillon was the pilot of Stirling LJ668 of 299 Sqdn, a special transport flight carrying a crew of 6 and 20 passengers from Cairo to London. Airborne for 9 hours and with fuel supplies running low Dillon attempted an emergency landing at Rennes airfield in France. Banking left over the airfield the aircraft hit the ground and was completely destroyed by fire. There were no survivors. The dead included six females and three married service couples. They are all buried in Rennes Communal Cemetery. Charles Dillon is commemorated on the family headstone in St. Patrick's Cemetery, Clonmel.

The Dillon Family headstone in St. Patrick's Cemetery, commemorating P/O Charles Dillon

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Cathleen Fitzgerald and the sinking of the Khedive Ismail

The words "Lost at Sea" attracted my attention here in conjunction with Cathleen's date of death. It took a bit of digging because she is recorded as Catherine by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission but eventually I found the record of 274636 Sister Catherine Fitzgerald, Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service, Daughter of Richard and Ann Fitzgerald, of Douglas, Co. Cork. Cathleen Fitzgerald was lost at sea so she is commemorated on the Brookwood Memorial, which commemorates nearly 3,500 men and women of the land forces of the British Commonwealth who died during the Second World War and have no known grave, the circumstances of their death being such that they could not appropriately be commemorated on any of the campaign memorials in the various theatres of war. Included are those, like Cathleen, who died at sea, in hospital ships and troop transports, in waters not associated with the major campaigns, and a few were killed in flying accidents or in aerial combat. The Memorial was designed by Ralph Hobday and unveiled by Queen Elizabeth II on 25th October 1958.

The SS Khedive Ismail

The Khedive Ismail started life as the SS Aconcagua, a passenger and mail ship built for a Chilean company by Scotts of Greenock and launched in February 1922. In the 1930s the ship was bought by an Egyptian shipping company and renamed the Khedive Ismail. In 1940 it was requisitioned a troopship and mostly ferried troops between Africa and Australia or India. The Khedive Ismail did take part in the evacuation of Greece in 1941.

On Sunday, 5th February 1944, convoy KR8 sailed from Mombasa, Kenya bound for Colombo, Ceylon. There were 5 troopships with an escort of 2 destroyers, HMS Paladin and Petard and the cruiser HMS Hawkins. The largest troopship was the Khedive Ismail. Aboard her were the convoy commodore,a crew of 187 and 1324 passengers- 996 men of 301st Field Regiment East African Artillery, 271 Royal Navy, 54 nursing sisters, 19 WRNS, 9 FANY and 1 War Correspondent.

The voyage was uneventful for the first week until the afternoon of the 12th February. The sea was calm with little breeze but it was very hot. An ENSA concert was in full swing aboard the Khedive Ismail. At 1430, the port lookout on HMS Petard spotted a periscope and sounded the alarm. Within seconds the ships' guns were brought to action. Even so a huge explosion shook the sea and Khedive Ismail's stern quarters were wreathed in flames and smoke. Within 3 minutes the ship had disappeared beneath the surface of the sea leaving wreckage, Carley floats and survivors floating in the water. The destroyers meantime raced to engage the submarine. HMS Paladin rammed the submarine, causing damage to herself. The submarine submerged and the Petard dropped depth charges to sink the enemy submarine. Many of the survivors of the sinking were killed in the two hour battle that ensued between Royal Navy ships and the Japanese submarine 1-27. Eventually the submarine was forced to the surface and sank with all hands by torpedoes

The convoy had scattered when the submarine struck and the destroyers eventually headed for Addu Atoll, in the Maldive Islands, HMS Petard towing the crippled HMS Paladin . The survivors were transferred to HMS Hawkins on the 13th. Of the 1,511 passengers and crew of the The Khedive Ismail, only 214 survived, including 6 women. The sinking of the The Khedive Ismail was the third worst Allied Maritime disaster of WW2 and the greatest ever single loss of female Commonwealth personnel. Several Irish nurses died in the disaster including Cathleen Fitzgerald

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Commemoration of Sgt-Maj Michael Guilfoyle, Royal Dublin Fusiliers. Died in Salonika 9th October 1916





Pte George Lawless, Irish Guards, killed on the Somme 15th September 1916



Sgt John Carter of the Tipperary Artilley, died 14th January 1891 his wife Marguerite died 7th October 1893 and Sgt Robert Humphreys of the Royal Irish Regiment died 25th July 1889



Sgt-Maj William Savage of the Royal Irish Regiment who died on the 8th October 1895. Sgt-Maj Savage was a veteran of Egypt and India



Lieutenant J. Vigors of the Royal Field Artillery who died on 28th December 1902 aged 41