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Sgt. Patrick Toman
British Army 2nd Btn. Royal Irish Rifles
from:53 Bridge Street, Hilden, Lisburn, N. Ireland
My Grandfather Partick Toman joined the army reserves (5th battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles) in 1906 when he was 18 years old. He was a labourer in the Barbour Linen Mill in Hilden.
Upon the outbreak of war in 1914 he was called up to regular service and the battalion went to Belfast to act as a training unit. My grandad was an instructor but on the 25th of December 1914 he was sent to the front with the 2nd battalion of the RIR because of the high losses suffered they needed more experienced men. He left behind his wife Catherine (Nee McCormick) and his three sons Richard, Patrick and John. John had been born in September of 1914 and his other sons were two and four years old.
He fought in 15 major battles while in France. He was wounded by shell fragments in 1916 during the Somme offensive. This happened on the 14th of July 1916 after his battalion had been in action at Ovilliers. He returned to his unit 30th of November 1916 and took part in the battle of Messines Ridge, the 1917 campaigns in Flanders, the tank battle at Cambrai, and the German Spring offensives of March 1918.
His battalion (the 2nd Royal Irish Rifles) was wiped out almost to the last man on the 24th of March 1918 as it fought desperate rear guard actions to allow the remnants of the 36th Ulster division to escape the German avalanche. Survivors continued to fight with various units until the end of March when the battalion was moved to reserve and the task of rebuilding it began.
Pat Toman was part of the re-built battalion until the 2nd of June 1918 when he was wounded while on a night patrol in the Ypres area. During this patrol Major Herbert Musgrave from Corps Intelligence was killed. My Grandad was shot in the thigh by a machine gun bullet but made it back to friendly lines alive. It was thought he might have to lose the leg but it was saved.
My granddad made a life after the war but suffered PTSD which he dealt with by prayer, solitude, and by swearing off alcohol. He died in 1952 (15 years before I was born) but I grew up on legends and tales about him all my life and we all love him several generations on. We respect the effort he made to give us the peace and freedom we enjoy today.
I was able to visit the battle fields in Belgium, where he fought for so long, in 2007. I was able to walk along the very road where he was wounded for the last time in 1918 and to visit the grave of his patrol mate Herbert Musgrave.
