2nd Lieutenant John Denis Shine, Royal Irish Regiment, died of his wounds at Mons, Belgium, on August 25th, 1914. He was 19 years old. His younger brother 2nd Lieutenant Hugh Patrick Shine, Royal Irish Fusiliers, died at Ypres in May the following year. Their older brother, Captain James Owen Shine, Royal Dublin Fusiliers, was wounded at the Somme and was subsequently killed in action at Wieltje in August 1917.John Denis is the only one of the three to have his own grave.
They were my step-uncles - three of the five children from my father's father's first marriage. Their mother died in 1924. Kevin Myers, in a column in the Irish Independent this time last year, put it well: "she died of whatever it is that mothers die of when all their sons are dead."
Estimates vary, but roughly 9 million combatants and 7 million civilians died in World War I. The most recent figures from WHO, for 2002, put that year's casualties of war at 170,000.
2 comments:
Greetings from the grandson of Sgt Major Michael Joseph O'Rourke, who survived. His cousins largely didn't.
One cousin, who was a medical orderly, described it to his family: picture me, he said, on Flanders field with an arm, trying to see if there's a body it fits.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ronanconroy/88630032/
Just found your blog whilst researching the Shine brothers who were my great uncles - my granny was their sister. According to the book "Downside at War", covering those from the school who fought in WW1, JD ("Gozo") was wounded in the groin on 27 Aug. 1914 and moved to a neighbouring church which was almost immediately destroyed by shell fire killing all those inside. J D died about 2 weeks short of his 20th birthday which would have been on 10 September. The Downside book also has mentions the other two Shine brothers Hugh Patrick and James Owen Williams both of whom were wounded prior to their deaths. Presumably your father would be Jim who is still in contact with at least one of my remaining aunts
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