Pte 34538 Patrick Lee

In 1911 his father, 61, a farmer, is living with William, 24, Anne, 23, and Patrick, 22, at the same address. Peter is not in the household.

 

There is a Peter Tierney, age 18, born in Co. Kildare, living at 57 Camden Street, Fitzwilliam, Dublin, one of four shop assistants employed by and living on the premises of Andrew Byrne, a tea and wine merchant. 

 

His sister Margaret Tierney, 19, is residing at 2 Goldsmith Terrace, Bray, employed as a shop assistant in a drapery. She speaks Irish and English. This address is the premises of Edward Lee & Co., a well known Dublin business, but, despite the name, no family connection had been found.

 

He enlisted in Seaforth, Liverpool and was serving in the 18th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private No 34538 Patrick Lee when he died of wounds at 1st Australian Casualty Clearing Station on 23rd September 1917 aged 27 during the Third Battle of Ypres.

 

He now rests at Outtersteene Communal Cemetery Extension, Bailleul, France.

 

Outtersteene was captured by the III Corps on 13 October 1914 but no Commonwealth burials took place there for nearly three years. In August 1917, during the Third Battle of Ypres, the 2nd, 53rd and 1st Australian Casualty Clearing Stations came to Outtersteene, and the first and last of these remained until March 1918. The hamlet was captured by the Germans on 12 April 1918, and retaken by the 9th, 29th and 31st Divisions, with the ridge beyond it, on 18 and 19 August, but the cemetery was not used again during hostilities. After the Armistice, over 900 graves of 1914 and 1918 were brought into Plots I, II and IV from the battlefields surrounding Outtersteene and from certain small cemeteries. In the Extension, on the East side of the Communal Cemetery, were buried 17 soldiers from the United Kingdom and one from Australia, who fell in August and September 1918. 1,147 German graves were initially concentrated into Plot III. These were later removed to Steenwerck German Cemetery. The extension was used again in 1940, for the burial of those killed in the fighting which covered the withdrawal of the British Expeditionary Force to Dunkirk. Outtersteene Communal Cemetery Extension now contains 1,393 Commonwealth burials and commemorations of the First World War. 499 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to 14 casualties known or believed to be buried among them. Second World War burials number 72, of which 23 are unidentified. The extension was designed by Sir Herbert Baker.

 

A notice in the Freeman’s Journal (Ireland) on 11th October 1917, announced a Requiem Mass for Private. P. Tierney, son of Mr. P. Tierney, Tankardstown, who died in France from wounds received in action.

 

His sister Miss Margaret Tierney, at 2 Goldsmith Terrace, Bray, (Dublin), County Wicklow,  received his effects, including a War Gratuity of £8, and a pension of 5/- a week for one year, then 6/- a week from 12th July, 1921 pending investigation, and awarded in 1923.  The investigation was likely related to the legal identity of her brother.  Other addresses for Margaret are shown on the pension cards: Tankardstown, Battington, Wicklow; c/o Tyrellspass, Co. Westmeath from 26th July, 1923. (Edward Lee & Co. opened a branch in Tyrellspass; it is possible that Margaret was employed there.)

 

His father died in 1918.

 

Patrick is commemorated on Ireland’s National Roll of Honour (as Patrick Lee, age 23).