A British sentimental and patriotic postcard || ‘A A Nash’, the signature of the artist who created the scene on the front of this postcard, can be seen on the right. Nash has depicted a boy dressed as a British soldier embracing a girl on a garden path. The caption below reads, ‘MANY HAPPY RETURNS!’ (the French version beneath that, ‘Les adieux.’, means ‘The farewells’). A message has been written in pencil on the reverse: ‘For little Charlie / Baz’. The printed information states: ‘Inter-Art Co., Red Lion Square, London, W.C. / “ELEVEN-O-FOUR” Series. No. 1108. / British Manufacture Throughout.’. || || Front || Postcard || A British sentimental and patriotic postcard.

Marshall Foch Order of the day 5961 Ending the war!

Michael Kehoe was born in Tullamore Co. Offaly Kings Country Ireland on 17 January 1891. He was raised in Tullow Co. Carlow. He immigrated to USA in 1907 and studied engineering in Fordham College New York. While in New York he became a member of Gaelic League, Clan na Gael and the Irish Republican Brotherhood. At a Clan na Gael gathering in 1911 he meet Roger Casement whom he would meet again in Germany during WW1. Michael returned to Ireland in 1913 and joined the Royal Irish Regiment as an IRB infiltrator but that course of action would change dramatically with the outbreak of WW1. His regiment was stationed at Clonmel barracks Co. Tipperary, Ireland before being transferred to Raglan barracks in Devonport, England. In July 1914, his unit was transferred to Falmouth before being shipped out through Southampton with the British Expeditionary Force. His unit was engaged in heavy fighting at Mons, Belgium on 22nd August 1914 and suffered many casualties before being overrun by German Uhlan troops cavalry regiment on the 23rd. With 500 dead and wounded from their battalion, Michael along with 250 soldiers from Irish, English and Scottish regiments were captured that day. 4 days later they were in Sennelager POW camp in Westphalia, Germany. By November 1914 Michael says there were 30,000 POWs in Sennelager, 20,000 French and 10,000 British of which 1,500 were from Irish regiments. It was at this time that Irish revolutionaries from Ireland and America were in negotiations with Germany for arms and aid for their planned Rebellion in Ireland. The Germans announced in Sennelager about the negotiations and said they were going to transfer the Irish soldiers to the POW camp in Limburg an der Lahn where conditions were less crowded and better. In the end, 2,000 were transported by train to Limburg. It was while the POWs were at Limburg that Roger Casement arrived to begin recruiting for Irish volunteers to join an Irish brigade to return home and fight for Irish freedom. He was later joined by Commandant Joseph Plunkett. Michael Kehoe who knew Casement from meeting him in the US in 1911 immediately joined the brigade. 54 Irishmen joined from Limburg along with 2 others who were not POWs. The 56 volunteers were transferred to Zossen military camp in Brandenburg to be trained as machine-gun corps. In 1916 Casement returned to Ireland with two of the volunteers by submarine. At the same time the Germans sent a ship the Aud loaded with arms and ammunition to Ireland. No Irish volunteers were there to meet the Aud and after two days off the Kerry coast the ship was spotted by the British navy and captured. However, the German officer Kapitan Karl Spindler scuttled the ship and it sank to the bottom of the sea. Casement and one volunteer were captured and Casement was hanged. The remaining 54 Irish brigade volunteers, now branded as traitors by the British, were stranded in Germany. They were transferred to Danzig and many of the men went to work in factories and farms. Eventually some joined various regiments of the German army. They changed their names in case of capture by the British. Michael Kehoe became Georg Kehoe and he and four others joined the Bavarian regiments while others joined Prussian units. From their memoires their belief was if they couldn’t fight for Irish freedom at home they would fight the British in Europe. Michael was involved in the last German offensive on the Western front 1918 and was wounded. When recovered he was transferred to the Bavarian Guards stationed in Nurnberg. At the end of the war, revolution griped Germany and the Communist took control of Munich. Michael and 3 other Irishmen, Jeremiah O’Callaghan, Patrick Sweeney and Patrick McDonagh, joined Von Epps Freikorps which stormed Munich and defeated the Communists. Patrick Sweeney was killed in the battle. On 8 September 1919 they were discharged from the Army. Many of the men from Casements Brigade married German girls while in Germany including Michael who married a Bavarian Red Cross Nurse named Anna Marie Seuffert. Most of the brigade returned to Ireland to fight against the British Empire in the War of Independence including Michael Kehoe. After the war and treaty with Britain, Michael joined the Engineer core of the Irish army. He was discharged in 1927 and returned to Germany with his wife and children. He left Germany for the last time in 1936 and settled for good in Ireland with his wife and 6 children. He died in 1964. Michael was awarded the Mons Star by the British, 2 Wound Badges and the Hindenburg Cross by the Germans and the Black & Tan by the Irish state.