Dublin man shot in the POW camp

phaethon

William Devlin (1878 – 3rd July 1916)
Private
2nd Battalion, Royal Dublin Fusiliers

William Devlin was entitled:
- Victory Medal (Roll B/103 B2 Page 106)
- British War Medal (Roll B/103 B2 Page 106)
-14 Star (Roll 132/Page 39)

William Devlin was born in 1878 and grew up in Dublin. Unfortunately there is no information about him on the Ireland Census (1901 and 1911).The only information that I was able to locate from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website indicates that his contact person during his service was his nephew Christina Doran of 48 South Great George Street (7).

After his early life in Dublin, William enlisted to the army at the age of 25 on the spring 1903 (No. 7999 joined on 9th October 1902 and 8823 joined on 15th September 1903) as a private. His service number was 8635 (3).
He most likely enlisted for 7 years full time service with the colours, to be followed by another 5 on the National Reserve. He was posted to the Royal Dublin Fusiliers 2nd Battalion, which returned to Dublin from the South African War the same year (9).

After the Boer war, the battalion was based in Buttevant, Co.Cork until 1910, when they were moved to Aldershot, where the Battalion received its new Colours from the Regiment's Colonel-in-Chief the Duke of Connaught at Aldershot (5/9). Probably at this point William’s 7 years of service was up and he was sent back to the National Reserve.

When the Great War broke out, the 2nd Battalion was in Gravesend, part of 10th Brigade in 4th Division, commanded by Brigadier-General J.A.L. Halden C.B., D.S.O.

On the 4th August 1914, 5.5 p.m. the order to mobilization was published. On the 8th of August at 12:30 a.m. theunit was moved to Harrow, where the whole Division was concentrated (10).

After a short period of preparations, the division was attached to the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and on the 20th of August orders were announced that Saturday 22nd Division will be departed. On that day 2nd Battalion was embarked on the S.S. Caledonia” and 11:30 a.m. start sailing to France (10).

Private Devlin landed in France 23rd August 1914 where the whole battalion found themselves in heavy battles almost immediately.
They took part in the retreat following the Battle of Mons, taking part in their first engagement on 26th of August 1914 at Le Cateau that helped delay the German advance towards Paris, inflicting such heavy casualties that the Germans thought they faced more machine-guns than they actually did. But many men, including men from the 2nd Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers, were stranded behind German lines, and many were taken prisoner by the Germans (5).
Probably at this time, Private William Devlin became a POW.
He was held in Limburg POW camp in Hesse.

At the early start of the war some of Irish the POW's was separated into a camp at Limburg where they were visited by Sir Roger Casement, who was trying to raise an "Irish Brigade" with almost no luck. Out of 2,200 Irish soldiers who were moved to Limburg, Casement managed to recruit only 55 (9/10).

On the 10th July 1916 British authorities were informed by American Ambassador that one of the British POWs was shot in the Limburg camp.
Incorrectly they stated that this person was William Devlin from Royal Munster Fusiliers but sadly the wrong part was only the unit, where William served with the Royal Dublin Fusiliers.

On July 13 the Foreign Office addressed a strong protest to the German Government against their action in endeavoring to place obstacles in the way of Mr. Gerard inquiring into the shooting of Moran (another Irish soldier who was shot), and in concealing the death of Devlin. An extract from the protest was as follows

”We demanded an immediate inquiry, in the presence of a member of the United States Embassy at Berlin, into the shooting of the two prisoners and the punishment of those found guilty. We pointed out that the proceeding would be all the more infamous if it were found to be connected with the refusal of the men to join Casement, and we asked leave from the American Government to publish the correspondence”.

The Germans trial found out that the guard Gefreiter (Corporal) Wust at Kordof shot William Devlin on the 2nd July 1916 as a self defense, after 2 warning shots. Devlin died next day on the 3rd July 3:30 to his fatal wounds. No future action were taking against Gefreiter (Corporal) Wust (1).

William's death is confirmed on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission site, Ancestry website and also Irish casualty listings (6/7).
William is buried Cologne Southern Cemetery, Grave XIV.D.5. He was 38 years old (7).

Source:

(1) Royal Dublin Fusiliers – a forgotten regiment
http://www.dublin-fusiliers.com/

(2) British Army WWI Medal Rolls Index Cards, 1914-1920
http://search.ancestry.co.uk

(3) Army Service Numbers 1881-1918
http://armyservicenumbers.blogspot.com/

(4) The Long, Long Trail – The British Army of 1914-1918 – for family historians
http://www.1914-1918.net

(5) Royal Dublin Fusiliers – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dublin_Fusiliers

(6) UK, Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914-1919
http://search.ancestry.co.uk

(7) Commonwealth War Graves Commission
www.cwgc.org

(8) The irish in Uniform – Royal Dublin Fusiliers
http://homepage.eircom.net/~tipperaryfame/rodubfus.htm

(9) Irish Prisoners of War in WW1
http://www.irishbrigade.eu/camps/limburg.html

(10) Crown and Company, 2nd Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers

phaethon

Devlin's VM and BWM naming

HerrScheisse

Very nice research Timo and a great find! That is a keeper for sure!

Just reading the newspaper extract "shot by the huns" :eek:

Depersonalisation of the enemy must have been constant at that time!

MedalFuhrer

Wow! Amazing piece of research and history! That must have taken some time to piece together.