Photographs || My father, Sydney Philip Gunn, joined up in August 1914 and served the entire War as a driver delivering ammunition to the front line being demobilised in February 1919 as a Corporal, Regimental No.2342 of 4 Division MT Coy.RASC. Among his war papers is a card from his elder brother, James Robert Gunn, sent from Egypt in October 1915 saying he was on his way to France with the Australian Army. James had emigrated to Australia in 1911 and had become a vetinary surgeon. He was a Captain in a mounted regiment of horse and I have photos of him in uniform mounted on his horse. My father had never seen Australian soldiers in France until one day in 1916 he recalled seeing soldiers in funny hats and asked them where they from and which unit to which they belonged. He discovered to his amazement that they were from his brother's regiment and therefore asked if Captain James Gunn was still with the unit. They said Yes, he is standing over there. They had not seen each other since James emigrated 5 years before. Both survived the War. || || My uncle Captain James Robert Gunn || Photograph || Captain James Robert Gunn || Photo taken of my Uncle Captain James Robert Gunn mounted on his horse in 1916/17 . || || My uncle Captain James Robert Gunn || Captain James Robert Gunn || Photograph

William George (Bill) Pearce, b. 1892) and his brother Edward John (Ted),b.1894) were born in Hampshire and enlisted together at Portsmouth on 20th August 1914. Their first posting was with the Royal Engineers to a fort in the Solent dating from the Napoleonic wars, where they operated and maintained searchlights. Ted, the younger brother, proved very able but Bill, not up to the technical trials of engineering, was posted for infantry training. Determined to stay together, the brothers invoked the then military custom and practice of allowing brothers to serve together to serve together if they wished. They did so wish. Both became infantrymen with the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, serving together in Mesopotamia, Palestine, Salonika, Macedonia and, most memorably, in Palestine. On 11th December 1917, they marched into Jerusalem behind Allenby. Later, sitting about and waiting for orders, they were joined by an officer in Allenby's entourage who chatted informally to them; they had met Lawrence of Arabia. It was in Jerusalem that they bought the crucifix that illustrates this story. In the spring of 1918, they were shipped back to Europe, and after two months rest and recuperation in western France - necessary because many of the men had malaria - came at last, that autumn, to the Western Front. The Germans were in retreat, closely pursued by infantry, Bill and Ted among them, in good shape and good heart. During the night of October 10-11th 1918 the two brothers became separated. Bill found Ted hanging on the old barbed wire with a severe gunshot wound in his left leg. Bill carried his brother to the field dressing station where orderlies were told to 'put him over there'. Bill knew what this meant: Ted was not expected to survive. Bill stormed off, muttering rebelliously. Less than a month later, he was himself was killed in action, on the same day (November 9th) and in the same sector as Wilfred Owen. Ted, however, did not die. Surgery left him with a three inch stump, just enough to support a prosthesis, fitted at Roehampton, from where he was honourably discharged on January 8th 1920. A long and active life lay ahead of him. In middle age he married my mother's sister, gardened, painted, took his terrier rabbiting, and earned a long-service gold watch as a clerical employee of British Celanese. He spoke little of the war and it was not until the last year of his life, after his wife's death, that he that he told us about the burden he had carried for 72 years. He was convinced that when Bill left him at the dressing station in October 1918, he intended to desert. Bill's death so soon afterwards served seemed only to confirm Ted's fear that his brother had been shot by firing squad as a deserter. Ted died at the age of 97, before we could tell what we now know: that Bill died honourably in battle, and lies in a beautifully tended grave in the Fontaine-au-Bois Cemetery in northern France. We laid poppies there for them both, for the young man who died in the Great War, and the old man who lived so long, and died still burdened by grief and by shame at what he thought his brother had done. May they both rest in peace. || Photographs of decorative crucifix, made of wood and mother of pearl (?) || || Front || Middle East || A crucifx from Jerusalem bought by my uncle, Ted Pearce || Remembrance || Memorabilia || An ornate crucifix of wood and mother of pearl, purchased in Jerusalem in December 1917 by my uncle, Ted Pearce (individual images and pdf of collected images). || Ted Pearce

Owen and Michael Carroll were two of the eleven children born to Tom and Margaret Carroll of Ballyconnigar, Blackwater, Co. Wexford. Owen was born in 1884 and worked on a lightship in Liverpool for a number of years. He travelled to the US in 1909 to find work and lived in Long Island, New York. In 1916 he became a naturalised American citizen. He worked on the Corsair, a private cruise ship belonging to American industrialist, J. P. Morgan jnr. In May1917 the Corsair was chartered by the US Navy and in June of the same year the USS Corsair sailed from New York with the first contingent of the American Expeditionary Force to France, arriving at Saint-Nazaire on 27 June. During the war, the USS Corsair crossed the war zone many times on convoy escort, and rescued survivors of torpedoed vessels. After the war Corsair was returned to her owner and once again became the private yacht Corsair II. Owen returned to Ireland and married Catherine Corrigan of Ballyconnigar in 1922. He remained in Ireland and took up farming, having inherited a farm from his aunt in Ballina, Blackwater, Co. Wexford. He died in 1969. Michael Carroll was born in January 1891. He followed his brother, Owen, to the US looking for work and took a job as a bartender. He went to college to study medicine. He was drafted in 1918 and had the choice of leaving the country or becoming an American citizen. As he wanted to continue his medical studies he agreed to the terms of citizenship. He enlisted as a Private in Casual Company 410, Medical Department and in September 1918 shipped out aboard the troop carrier HMS Otranto bound for Liverpool with American troops. On 6 Oct. 1918, during a heavy storm, HMS Otranto collided with another troop-carrier HMS Kashmir in Machir Bay off the north coast of Islay, Scotland. The collision ripped a large hole in her side at the point where the ship’s hospital was, killing several men in the hospital. Private Michael Carroll’s body was washed ashore at Colonsay, a small island near Islay a short while later. He was buried in Kilchoman cemetery (near Islay), overlooking the sea. He was 26 years old. He had married Nellie Reilly in St Joseph of the Holy Family church in Upper Manhattan. His death certificate was issued on 14 April 1919 and in the early 1920s, Michael’s wife Nellie requested that he be re-interred in Queen’s Cemetery, New York. The church service for his re-interment took place in the church where they were originally married. || Michael Carroll; Owen Carroll; USA army cert for Michael Carroll || || Michael 'Mike' Carroll 1891-1918 || Michael Carroll || Photograph || || Michael Carroll || United States || US certificate of honour for Michael Carroll || Official document || || Owen Carroll || Owen Carroll 1884-1969 || Photograph