Guards Division   

A World War One Living History Organization

In Remembrance

Martin Walsh and Thomas Joseph Walsh:

Written by our member and their descendant, Steve Walsh

Above is a photo of Martin Walsh, 2nd Bn, Irish Guards, taken in December 1914 after he had been wounded. He is in the second row, fifth from the right. 

Martin Walsh

Martin Walsh was one of seventy Royal Irish Constabulary (Irish Police) who were called up for their two week summer active duty training in early August. He was in the first Battalion Irish Guards as a Reservist.

He had been on active duty from March 1908 thru March of 1911.

He mustered out and became a reservist for four years per his enlistment agreement.

(November 1911 he became a Policeman in the RIC)

Martin fell down a chalk pit shaft and broke his thumb and index finger on the way back to the trenches at night.

(You can’t fire a rifle with a broken index finger.) While at the military hospital, he was also treated for a new case of gonorrhea. (This was a mis-diagnosis as he died of syphilis 20 years later. When and where he caught it is still a mystery.) This condition gave him a weak heart which made him in-eligible for active duty on the front lines. He spent the rest of the war at Wellington Barracks and Chatterley Barracks as a Corporal in the Military Police in the second and third Battalions of the Irish Guards. He was discharged in March 1918 as Disabled Medically Unfit.

He was unable to resume his old job as a policeman in the R.I.C. as he was considered medically unfit due to a bad heart. He worked as a prison guard for a few months but had a nervous break down. This was during Irelands War for Independence. With jobs being scarce in Ireland for a “used up and spent” veteran, he eventually returned to England became a mailman in London. While there he was an active member of the “Old Comrades Society” of the Irish Guards and regularly attended their meetings. He also attended St. Patrick’s Day banquets and other veteran’s affairs. He married in 1928 to Matilda LaVelle. They had a son James in 1929. Then a daughter Mary in 1930. Another daughter followed in 1933 named Sabina who died in less than a year due to meningitis. The folly of Martin’s youth caught up with him by December 1934. He died of Syphilis. He is buried in Stratum Cemetery in London. A head stone was erected by his grandson Steve Walsh in 1988.

Thomas Joseph Walsh

Thomas Joseph Walsh had just finished his basic training in late July 1914 after enlisting in March of 1914.

They both served together in the First Battalion from August 1914 until mid October when Martin was wounded.

Tom survived the war. He came out as a Sergeant. He was in France from August 1914 thru April 1916. He was sent home on leave for a few months and then returned for Non-Com. Training as a corporal. He was in charge of a squad and then shipped out to France again. He was wounded at the Somme in April of 1917. He received a gun shot wound to the back. He was promoted to sergeant and sent back to the front. He was discharged in March of 1919.

By November of 1919 he was a policeman in the Royal Irish Constabulary. By mid-November 1920 his police record says that he did not show up for duty and was dismissed from the force. Many theories abound as to what happened to him:

a) His IG service records indicate that in 1926 Martin believed that he was “force-ably taken from a train and shot in the back of the head by the IRA during the SoHo beg murders.” His body was never recovered and was believed to have been dumped in a bog. Martin at the time of writing was applying for a lump sum for the pension that Tom was entitled to.   

b) His sister Beatrice said that Tom was working as a double agent for Michael Collins. She went on to say that the British had figured out that he was working as an informant to Michael Collins and he had to leave the country in a hurry. Where he went, she would never say. She did say that she received a letter from him in 1933, or so and he was well. Did he go to Australia, Canada or to his two brothers (James and Michael) in New York City who were also policemen? We don’t know!