Jack and Lal's experience
The twin brothers John Christopher (Jack, who was my grandfather) and Angelo (Lal) Stephens enlisted in 1914 with their cousin Arnold. Lal was in the Fourth Fusiliers Cavalry regiment. He wrote of the friendships he had formed and also about when his horse was killed.
Both Jack and Lal were wounded at the Somme. Unfortunately Jack was left injured in the field overnight and because of this, he was not expected to live. He received treatment at an English hospital in Richmond and survived with shrapnel in his right leg. This would have been in late 1916. Amazingly, in 1923 or 1924, Jack met the man who had carried him off the field after he was injured. He died on 15th August 1969 and is buried in Dean’s Grange. Lal received treatment for his injury in a French hospital before being sent to England. He died in August 1980.
Another brother, Jim, joined the air corps and upon returning home from the war became founder of the Maritime Museum in Dun Laoghaire. Also, my grandmother’s brother, Joseph Byrne, died on 1st March 1918 in France (possibly Ypres) He was a Dublin Fusilier.
Picture of cavalry regiment
CONTRIBUTOR
Mary Carroll
DATE
1914 - 1980
LANGUAGE
eng
ITEMS
1
INSTITUTION
Europeana 1914-1918
PROGRESS
METADATA
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