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Sherlock, Paddy
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Rank: Number: Regiment: Dates: Age: Local background: Grave/Memorial: Grave Reference/Panel No.: |
Sherlock,
Paddy Munster Fusiliers to 1918, and Leinster Regiment to 1922 b. March 1896. d. 20th September 1956 60 Born Bogberry, Ennistymon.
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In March 1896, Paddy Sherlock was born to Thomas and Catherine the eldest of fourteen children, six boys and eight girls, of whom Nora Scales survives, living in Ennistymon in 1988. Paddy Sherlock joined the British army in 1913, at the age of seventeen. As the saying then was "he took the shilling".
A recruiting sergeant came to Ennistymon looking for volunteers. Paddy was of the age that must see the world, and anyway, he was generally unemployed, belonged to a large family and had no great commitments at home. He served in France first, and then his regiment was transferred to the Dardanelles and from there to Upper Silesia in Poland, in the Great war of 1914-1918.
While at home in Ennistymon in 1916 he married Bridget Leary in Miltown Malbay church. The witness to the marriage was John Thynne and the bride's sister Mary Anne Leary. When the Munster Fusiliers were disbanded in 1922 Paddy received a gratuity of £10 and seven shillings and six pence per week for the following two years. It is said he soon sold this pension for a small down payment.