THOMAS J. STAPLETON 1876 - 1917 The following information was supplied by William Stapleton, Railway View, Roscrea.

Family information supplied: Thomas Stapleton Born 1876 Royal Irish Lancers Killed in France 1914-18 The usual starting point to research a soldier who is believed to have died in the First World War is to check that he actually did! Clearly this was the case and Thomas J. Stapleton is readily identifiable from the Debt of Honour records provided online by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC). http://www.cwgc.org/debt of honour.asp

His entry is as follows: Name: STAPLETON Initials: T J Rank: Private Regiment/Service: 5th (Royal Irish) Lancers Age: 41 Date of Death: 22/06/1917 Service No: GS/4830 Additional information: Son of Patrick and Winifred Stapleton, of Millpark, Roscrea; husband of Winifred Stapleton, of Dublin Rd., Roscrea, Co. Tipperary.

Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead Grave/Memorial: 11. F. 27. Reference: Cemetery: UNICORN CEMETERY, VENDHUILE

Above: the type of uniform worn by Thomas. This is not a photo of him, however. Records for service personnel who died are generally more numerous than for those who survived and Thomas appears in several other places as well. This is his entry in a publication entitled 'Soldiers Died in the Great War' which was produced after the war from records kept by most serving units - there are 81 volumes recording over 703,000 individuals but it is now online via

ancestry.co.uk Name: Thomas J Stapleton Birth Place: Roscrea, Tipperary Residence: Roscrea Death Date: 22 Jun 1917 Death Location: France & Flanders Enlistment Location: Birr Rank: Private Regiment: Household Cavalry and Cavalry of Line (including Yeomanry and Imperial Camel Corps) Battalion: Corps of Lancers. 5th Lancers (Royal Irish) Number: 4830 Type of Casualty: Killed in action Theatre of War: Westem European Theater

'Soldiers Died' is always checked in addition to the CWGC as it often offers additional information regarding the place where a soldier enlisted. In Thomas' case this is given as in County Offaly. His parents and wife lived in Roscrea, County Tipperary but the distance between and Roscrea is only about 11 miles so Birr was probably the most convenient recruiting station for him. Present day Wikipedia for the locations include the following information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki Roscrea Roscrea: (Irish: Ros Cré) is a small heritage town in North Tipperary, Ireland. The town has a population of 4,910. Its main industries include meat processing and pharmaceuticals. It is a civil parish in the historical barony of Ikerrin. It is also an Ecclesiastical parish in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Killaloe. The town is located in the south midlands, 44 miles (71 km) from Limerick City and 76 miles (122 km) from Dublin City. It is at the crossroads of the N7 road between Dublin and Limerick and the N62 between Athlone and Horse and Jockey where it connects to the main M8 motorway between Dublin and Cork. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki Birr Birr (from the Irish: Biorra) is a town in County Offaly, Ireland. Once called Parsonstown, after the Parsons family who were local landowners and

hereditary Earls of Rosse. It is also a parish in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Killaloe. Birr is an Irish Heritage Town with a carefully preserved Georgian heritage. The town is situated at the meeting of the Camcor and Little Brosna rivers. On leaving Birr, the combined Camcor and Little Brosna River form the River Brosna, which flows into the River Shannon. Birr lies on the N52 and N62 secondary roads. This is part of a 1918 trench map with German trenches marked in red and Allied in blue so you can see the close proximity of the forces in this area. In early summer 1917 Gillemont Farm had been in British possession — held in May by the Queen's Own Oxford Hussars. In fact, Ian Fleming's father, a Major in that regiment, was killed here that month. On June, the Oxfords were relieved by the Royal Irish Lancers, who held the farm until they in turn were relieved on the 27th. Consequently, this is where Thomas was on the day he was killed - June 22nd 1917. A short summary of events that day would record that on the night of 21st / 22nd June, the Germans launched a ferocious bombardment of the farm and by 2.05am had managed to infiltrate Allied trenches and the farm itself. After further fierce shelling and hand to hand fighting the attack was repulsed and by 5.30am the Allied situation was reported as 'normal'. However, the following extracts from letters and reports written by Tomas' commanding officer, Arthur Talbot Rice, offer a better appreciation of the circumstances under which Thomas died: 22.6.17 My Dearest Mother Since I last wrote I have had the most strenuous times. All yesterday we were intermittently blown about by the Boche which is perhaps in the ordinary course of events. However, we had rather an extraordinary mid-summer-nights-dream, as the Boche elected to bring off a most vicious raid on our 'Farm'! He began at 1 AM by about ½ an hour of a bombardment with every kind of frightfulness, the like of which I have never even imagined, much less experienced. Then when our trenches were reduced to a stated (sic) of being more or less 'non est' he attacked. Nearly all the men were blown up so we had very few left — however all is well that ends well & we …

Arthur Talbot Rice, was himself killed in March 1918 but won a Military Medal for his actions during the attack. His citation reads:

For conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty when holding a post with his Squadron. Although wounded and heavily attacked from three sides, he held on to the rear of his position, orgnised a counter attack and with the aid of reinforcements regained the whole of his post and consolidated it. When reinforcements arrived he only had 23 officers and men left out of his original squadron.

In total, one Distinguished Service Order, 2 Military Crosses and 4 Military Medals were awarded for defense of this important allied position. Sadly, Thomas was almost certainly one of the 18 died. Without an eye-witness account of his actual demise such as a letter from his officer, comrade or padre, it cannot be known whether he was killed by the shelling or in hand to hand combat. Thankfully, he is not one of the missing but always had a grave - probably quite nearby at the time but his remains were 'gathered in' after the armistice and he lies in Unicom Cemetery with comrades from both the 5th Irish Lancers and Oxford Hussars who lost their lives holding Gillemont Farm in 1917.

Unicorn Cemetery Country: France

Locality: Aisne

Identified Casualties: 599

Location Information Vendhuile is a village about 19 kilometres north of St Quentin and 24 kilometres south-east of Peronne. Unicorn Cemetery is about 3 kilometres south-west of Vendhuile on the west side of the road to the villages of Lempire and Ronssoy.

Historical Information Vendhuile (Vend'huile) was very nearly reached in the Battle of Cambrai 1917. It was taken by the 27th and 30th American Divisions at the end of September 1918, and cleared by the 12th and 18th Divisions on 30 September. After the fight, men of the 18th Division were buried by the 50th (Northumbrian) Division in Plot I, Row A, of Unicorn Cemetery (the name is taken from the

Divisional mark of the 50th Division). The rest of the cemetery was formed after the Armistice when graves were brought in from the surrounding battlefields, isolated sites and from the following small cemeteries of 1917 and 1918:- LA PAURELLE BRITISH CEMETERY, RONSSOY, contained 110 graves of soldiers from the United Kingdom. It was in a hamlet on the Basse Boulogne-Epehy road. It was begun by 1/5th Gloucesters in April 1917 and used by cavalry and infantry units until February 1918. After the recapture of Ronssoy by the 18th Division on the 18th September 1918, it was used again by the 6th Northamptons. BASSE-BOULOGNE BRITISH CEMETERY, LEMPIRE, contained the graves of 67 soldiers from the United Kingdom and Australia. It was made by the 103rd Labour Company after the capture of Basse-Boulogne on the 18th September 1918, by the 6th Northamptons. It was a little East of the hamlet of Basse-Boulogne. LEMPIRE BRITISH CEMETERY, originally contained the graves of 118 soldiers from the United Kingdom, one from Australia, 15 American soldiers and 40 German prisoners. It was made by the 18th Division Burial Officer after the Division had cleared Lempire on the 19th September 1918. It was on the Eastern side of Lempire village. LEMPIRE and VEND'HUILE COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSIONS, contained respectively the graves of seven and six soldiers from the United Kingdom. The cemetery now contains 1,008 burials and commemorations of the First World War. 409 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to ten casualties known or believed to be buried among them. There are also special memorials to eight casualties buried in Lempire British Cemetery whose graves could not be found on concentration. The cemetery was designed by Charles Holden.

Burial Details

T J Stapleton

Remembered with HonourUnicorn Cemetery, Vendhuile

In Memory of

Private

GS/4830, 5th (Royal Irish) Lancers who died on 22 June 1917 Age 41

Son of Patrick and Winifred Stapleton, of Millpark, Roscrea; husband of Winifred Stapleton, of Dublin Rd.,Roscrea, Co. Tipperary.