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8th Battalion, Royal Irish Fusiliers
8th (Service) Battalion, Royal Irish Fusiliers was raised at Armagh in September 1914 as part of Kitchener's Second New Army and joined
49th Brigade, 16th (Irish) Division. They trained at Tipperary and crossed to England in September 1915, for final training at Pirbright. They proceeded to France in February 1916. They were in action on the Somme during the The Battle of Guillemont in which the Division captured the village and The Battle of Ginchy. on the 15th of October 1916 the 8th Battalion amalgamated with 8th Battalion to form the 7/8th Battalion.
16th Oct 1915 The Derby Scheme
1st Dec 1915 Derby Scheme Armlets
11th Sep 1915 Last day of Derby Scheme Recruitment
10th Jan 1916 Group System Reopens
9th February 1916 Call Ups
25th August 1916 Brigade will relieve 49th Brigade
4th of September 1916 Units Mixed Up 
6th of September 1916 Wood Cleared
If you can provide any additional information, please add it here.
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| Want to know more about 8th Battalion, Royal Irish Fusiliers ? There are:5238 items tagged 8th Battalion, Royal Irish Fusiliers available in our Library
These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Great War.
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Those known to have served with8th Battalion, Royal Irish Fusiliers during the Great War 1914-1918. - Alexander Thomas. Pte. (d.10th Nov 1916)
- Blaikie Hugh. Pte. (d.22nd May 1916)
- Bradley Fredrick. Pte. (d.15th Apr 1916)
- Bridgeman James. Pte. (d.20th Nov 1917)
- Brien Thomas. CSM. (d.11th Jun 1916)
- Brophy Patrick. Pte. (d.16th Nov 1917)
- Buckingham Clement Forester. A/Cpl.
- Doyle William Joseph Gabriel. Capt. (d.16th Aug 1917)
- Gammell William James. Pte. (d.10th July 1916)
- Gavin Edward. Pte. (d.28th December 1914)
- Hanna Samuel. Pte. (d.4th May 1916)
- Heaney Patrick. Pte. (d.21st Jul 1916)
- Hunt T.. Pte.
- Mulvaney James. Pte. (d.10th Jul 1916)
All names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed,
please Add a Name to this List
Records of 8th Battalion, Royal Irish Fusiliers from other sources.
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Pte. T. Hunt 8th Btn. Royal Irish Fusiliers Private Hunt was the Son of James Hunt, of Grangebarry, Fethard.
He was 23 when he died on 1st January 1919 and is buried South-West of of the church in the Moglass Catholic Churchyard, Killenaule, Co. Tipperary, Ireland.
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Pte. Edward Gavin 8th Btn. Royal Irish Fusiliers (d.28th December 1914) Private Gavin was the Son of Edward and Kate Gavin, of Stoneyford, Dalystown, Mullingar, Co. Meath.
He was 27 when he died and is buried In the North-East part of the Meedian Catholic Churchyard, Co. Westmeath, Ireland.
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Pte. Samuel Hanna 8th Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers (d.4th May 1916) Samuel Hanna served with the 8th Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers, in the 36th Division, comprising of 28 Battalions mostly of Irish Regiments. They arrived in France in February 1916 and were assigned to the Loos sector.
The soldiers experienced trench warfare and suffered casualties during this early period in the front line. They were in the trenches at Hulloch when the Germans launched a gas attacks on 27th and 29th of April 1916.
Of the 1980 casualties, 570 were killed and many of the wounded died later from respiratory diseases.
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Pte. James Mulvaney 8th Btn. Royal Irish Fusiliers (d.10th Jul 1916) James Mulvaney was killed in action in France.
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Capt. William Joseph Gabriel Doyle att. 8th Btn. Royal Irish Fusiliers Army Chaplains Department (d.16th Aug 1917) William Joseph Gabriel Doyle was born on 3rd March 1873 in Dublin Ireland.
He served with the 8th Battalion of the Royal Irish Fusiliers from 1915. He faced No Man's Land constantly running the gaunlet of gunfire and proved fearless.
Father Doyle celebrated his first Holy Mass in the trenches on 23rd April 1916, Easter Sunday. Father Doyle lived with the men in the trenches, he witnessed the horror of death and the mutilation of the men he called his boys, he went into No Man's Land to give The Last Rites and to bury the dead, he worked tirelessly to give comfort to the injured and dying. He stayed in the trenches to give support even during the gas attacks on the 16th Irish Division. 800 men died, nearly all from gas. In the mist of the fighting, a German shell was fired randomly at British lines. As it exploded, Father Willie was killed outright, whilst dragging a wounded man away from danger. The date was the 16th August 1917.
Father Doyle loved his men, he was loved by everyone in the battalion whether Catholic or Protestant. What was left of Fr Doyle's body was hastily interred without ceremony in a communal grave in the battlefield of Passchendaele.
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Pte. Patrick Heaney 8th Btn. Royal Irish Fusiliers (d.21st Jul 1916) My great grandfather Patrick Heaney, aged 36 years, died of wounds at Bethune Military Hospital on the 21st Jul 1916. He is buried at Bethune Cemetery, France.
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Pte. Patrick Brophy 8th Btn. Royal Irish Fusiliers (d.16th Nov 1917) Patrick Brophy served initially with the Royal Dublin Fusiliers and subsequently with Princess Victoria's (Royal Irish Fusiliers) 8th Battalion, dying in November 1917.
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CSM. Thomas Brien 8th Btn. Princess Victoria's (Royal Irish Fusiliers) (d.11th Jun 1916) CSM Thomas Brien was the husband of Alice Brien, of 6, Bow Lane, James St., Dublin.
He served in the Sudan and South African Campaigns, and with Princess Victoria's (Royal Irish Fusiliers), 8th Battalion.
He was killed in action in June 1916, aged 39, and is buried in Bois-Carre Military Cemetery, Haisnes, France.
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Pte. James Bridgeman 8th Btn. Princess Victoria's (Royal Irish Fusiliers) (d.20th Nov 1917) James Bridgeman served with Princess Victoria's (Royal Irish) Fusiliers 8th Battalion and died of wounds in November 1917.
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Pte. Hugh Blaikie 8th Btn. Royal Irish Fusiliers (d.22nd May 1916) Hugh Blaikie was born Glencorse, Midlothian, lived in Dublin and enlisted in Musselburgh as Pte. 22244, Royal Dublin Fusiliers.
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Pte. Thomas Alexander 8th Btn. Princess Victoria's (Royal Irish Fusiliers) (d.10th Nov 1916) Thomas Alexnder was born Limerick and enlisted in Manchester.
He served with Princess Victoria's (Royal Irish) Fusiliers 8th Battalion and died of wounds in Flanders in November 1916.
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A/Cpl. Clement Forester Buckingham 7/8th Btn. Royal Irish Fusiliers  Forester tried to join up in 1914, but aged a little under 17, was turned back when his medical check was done by the family doctor.
He attested young under the Derby Scheme, and signed up as soon as he was 18 and a half.
Only last week discovered cassette tapes which recounted his experience at Messines. this is a transcript of that day's events from his perspective:
Towards the end of May, there was a lot more activity in the part of the line we were then occupying: a movement of other troops, different regiments, coming up to the rear link lines. There were more men in the front and reserve trenches than usual; rather more artillery firing by our own guns. We sensed something big was coming up, but of course we weren't then quite aware of what was going to happen, although we sensed there was something big happening. We had had heard rumours there was going to be a big advance, because of the extra people being brought there. Our own regiment was brought up to the support trenches on the morning of the sixth of June. That night, about ten o'clock, we moved to the reserve line. And at about 2 a.m. went into the frontline trenches. They were more or less absolutely packed - what we would call double-packed. There was men standing on the fire-step, and then we were in the trench behind them. There was about three rows of men. It seemed very quiet for once. Ever so quiet and still. Very little gunfire or shelling from our side, but quite a lot from the German lines the other side. They sort of sensed, I think, that something was coming off. At ten past three in the morning all hell was let loose: terrific explosions, all on a stretch of the line to the left and the right of us. I think there was nineteen lines exploded on the German trenches. I counted at least six, perhaps seven, where there was a glow in the sky, and earth and soil shooting up. I understand that Lloyd George, and members of the then government, were waiting in London and could hear the noise in London all the away across from France. That was such a terrific din. Our artillery fire went off with a crash, and it was constantly shell fire. you couldn't hear yourselves speak. At the same time, our first wave of men went over from the front, straight towards the German lines. There was quietness for a while from that side, and then all of a sudden machine-gun fire burst out quite from the back. And then many men got hit. Quite a number of casualties. I had a very good friend of mine, a young cornishman called Pengelley, he was our company runner. He was running just to the left of me as we went over the ... went advancing. Of course it was reasonably daylight then, because of how early in the morning, we could see quiet well, apart from the smoke and all of the confounded din. Poor chap ..[tape cuts out, starts out again] ...?? that. But then of course Jerry got a lot of his machine-guns going behind and he was letting rip and poor old Pengelley got one straight in the head. I ran over to him and he was as dead as a doornail. He really got an awful bang. Anyway, we couldn't stop. We were not allowed to stop. We had to carry on with our advance, and we got up to the top of the Wytshaete Ridge - what you call the Woodshet Ridge - and there we were ordered to dig in, and make a line of support trenches to hold the part of the line there, while other people were still advancing quite through to the village. After a while, we were ordered on a bit further, and we went up quite in the village. the devastation was terrific. It was only holes everywhere. Meanwhile, Jerry had now got his big guns going, and he was slamming over stuff as hard as he could at us. Then our regiment was made to retire to the top of the ridge, where we were digging in, and we still carried on digging there, while other troops passed through us. The advance went on quite well, apparently - a very large number of prisoners were taken. Heaps of them came streaming past us, poor devils. I was rather moved to see one who was eating a piece of English white bread. Who he got it from, I don't know, but he was thoroughly enjoying it. He waved his hands and grinned. A lot of them were very pleased to be captured. My particular part of the line we were in, we had to still carry on digging, consolidating our position. We didn't have orders to advance further. We were more or less making lines there, so that if any of the men were forced to retire, they'd got a place to retire to. Well the day wore on, it got nice and bright and sunny, being early May ... it was early June, I should say - it was quite pleasant, except for the incessant gun fire and the constant machine-gun fire, which was very uncomfortable at times. And then at ten past three in the afternoon, Jerry must have opened up some more heavy stuff, and all of a sudden there was a terrific bang and a whistle near me, and a huge crash. And all I remember now is going spinning up into the air, twisting round and round. Well I don't know if I was knocked unconscious or not, but I wasn't actually - but I just sensed , 'Oh Blimey! Is this death?' And it seemed so peaceful, and then all of a sudden crash! as I hit the ground. And a lot of muck all tumbled bang, and I was more or less half buried. Very nearly buried alive. It was really most uncomfortable, and I was in a lot of pain. Any rate, some of the lads who hadn't been .. there must have been eight or nine casualties, cos I can see whether .. almost the faces of my pals as this damn great shell exploded. Any rate. Two or three of them must have rushed over, that hadn't been hurt, and pulled me out, and, well, that was that. I was carried some hundreds of yards back to what was a first aid station, and there they examined me carefully, and found I hadn't got any what they call 'bad' injuries. I was merely .. my clothes were half torn off me, and I was dreadfully bruised, and very painful all down my right side, and could hardly move my right leg, it was so stiff. That's where I suppose I had been hit with the shell contusions, and the force of the explosion. I later heard from one of my mates when in hospital, that that particular shell had killed six of our chaps in the trenches - four who I knew personally, and were good friends of mine. But still, that was life. Some little time later I was carried by two big hefty German prisoners of war on a stretcher way back to where we hopped .. to near our original front line.....
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