Royal Irish Fusiliers (Princess Victoria’s)
Private Devine’s story is unusual in that there is no obvious Gloucestershire connection, other than where he died and is now buried.
Samuel Robert Devine, to give his full name, was born in the Everton district of Liverpool on 23 July 1885, into a Protestant family with a strong Irish connection . His parents were William who was a bookkeeper and Catherine (née Johnson) both of whom appear to have died in the year after Samuel’s birth. It seems likely that he was brought up by relatives in Ireland, as the 1901 Irish census shows him (aged 15) living with his uncles John and George on a farm at Carrowfarnaghan, Ardue, Co Cavan.
In 1907 he married Martha Eliza Ludlow at Bawnboy, Co Cavan. Sadly she died on 8 July 1908, very shortly after giving birth to their son, Francis William on 28 June. Samuel re-married in late 1910, to Elizabeth Howe, at Clogher, Co Tyrone.
The 1911 Irish census records Samuel (age 26), Elizabeth (age 21) and Francis William (age 3) living in a tied property on a farm at Killykeeran, Deerpark, Co Fermanagh. Samuel was evidently a labourer on the farm.
He and Elizabeth had four children together: Emily (1911); Elizabeth (1912); George (1914) and Samuel Robert (1915, who died in the following year). They all appear to have been born at Brookeborough, Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh.
Unfortunately there are very few surviving records in respect of Samuel’s military service. According to the Royal Irish Fusiliers (RIF) volume of Soldiers Died in the Great War he was living at Brookeborough at the time when he enlisted at Enniskillen. His Medal Index Card (MIC) indicates that his initial service was with the 6th Dragoons (Inniskilling), with the number UD/56. This would have been a mounted unit and it is possible that he enlisted to be with them between 1911 and the outbreak of war in 1914.
In the absence of a surviving Service Record any enlistment or unit transfer dates cannot be confirmed.
At some point he transferred to the 9th (Service) Battalion of the RIF, an infantry unit. This became part of 108 Brigade, 36th (Ulster) Division, which saw action in some of the major engagement of the Great War – the Somme Offensive (1916) and the Battles of Messines, Third Ypres (or Passchendaele) and Cambrai in 1917. His MIC states that he first went to the Western Front on 6 October 1915, this being the date that the 9 RIF was posted. There was never any conscription in Ireland and given the date of the move to France it can be assumed that Samuel was either a serving soldier before the start of the Great War or volunteered shortly after it began.
The Soldiers’ Effects Register held at the National Army Museum in London has an entry which states that Samuel died at a VAD hospital in Cheltenham on 24 February 1918 (age 33). A recently released Pension Record Card (PRC) states that he died as a result of contracting tuberculosis whilst on active service. The PRC also notes some other significant information. He and his wife Elizabeth had apparently separated. Their youngest surviving child, George (born on 21 September 1914) was now in the care of a guardian, the Reverend R Lapham, Templecame Rectory, Pettigo, Co Donegal and he would be receiving a grant towards the child’s upkeep. Whilst it noted the existence of the other children, including the one from Samuel’s first marriage, there is no indication as to their whereabouts or that of his estranged wife.
Private Samuel Robert Devine was buried in Gloucester Old Cemetery, where a standard CWGC
headstone marks his grave. He is recorded in the List of Irish Casualties of World War One.
Researched by Graham Adams 7 November 2019