World War I Graves & Memorials

Identity Statement

Repository Code: IE 2036 
Archive Reference: KCA/WWI/
Title: World War I Graves and Memorials of County Kildare
Creation Date: 2016-2020
Extent Medium: 260 digital photographs

Context

Creators: Seán Sourke and Kildare County Archives.
Administrative History:  The County Kildare Decade of Commemorations Committee commissioned photographer, Seán Sourke, Naas, Co. Kildare, to locate and photograph the World War I graves and memorials as a permanent memorial of the war dead in the county. The work was undertaken between 2016-2020.  County Kildare was an important centre of the British Army in Ireland, with barracks at Naas, Newbridge, Kildare Town and the Curragh Camp and its presence in the county for many generations ensured that enlistment in the county was above average.  The Imperial War Graves Commission (IWGC) was founded on 21 May 1917 to commemorate the war dead of the previous three years. While the IWGC faced a monumental task, within twenty years of its establishment it had commemorated 580,000 identified and over 180,000 unidentified British Commonwealth dead of the war. In 1960 the IWGC was renamed the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC). The principle of the equal treatment of all war dead was a central tenet of the War Graves Commission. Memorials were designed to be permanent and uniform, with no distinction in the shape or size of gravestones on account of the rank or social standing of the deceased. The grave-markers would be upright slabs, not crosses; the cemeteries would have a standard design, with standard symbols and inscriptions. Even unidentified soldiers were to be given individual graves. France created the concept of the “Unknown Soldier”. No exhumation of remains for repatriation was permitted. The fallen were interred and commemorated in a cemetery close to where they had died; those whose relatives could have afforded the cost of repatriation were to be denied in the interests of all. Every serviceman deemed to be on active service during the period from 4 August 1914 to 31 August 1921 was considered as war dead. Those who died after 31 August 1921 as a result of wounds inflicted or diseases contracted during the course of the war were not classed as war dead. In Ireland the CWGC, the Irish Land Commission and Office of Public Works work together to erect and maintain gravestones.  Local communities have also commemorated the dead in churches, schools and graveyards with plaques, scrolls and stained glass windows.

Content and Structure

Scope & Content: This collection contains photographs of the graves of those who died in County Kildare, as well as some of those who died serving overseas but who were commemorated on family gravestones, plaques or other memorials locally. The graves of soldiers who died while serving in the Curragh Camp and buried in the Curragh Military Cemetery from 1914-1918 are also included. This cemetery, located on the eastern side of the Curragh Military Camp contains over 100 Commonwealth service burials dating mostly from World War I up until the site was last used in 1922. Also included is the memorial in remembrance of those from Athy and environs which was unveiled in the Old St. Michael's Cemetery on 11 November 2018 to mark the centenary of the end of the Great War.  There is more than one photograph for some of the gravestones and memorials to give a different angle or a close up view. The file name consists of the individual's surname, first initial, and service number.

Conditions of Access and Use

Access Conditions: Full Access
Conditions Governing Reproduction: This collection is being made available under a CC BY-NC-ND licence, which allows users to access the material if the original copyright holders are credited; the material cannot be changed in any way or used commercially. Permission from archivist required.
Material Language: English

Allied Materials

Copies Information: The collection can be viewed here. The County Archives acknowledges the support of the County Kildare Decade of Commemorations Committee and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport, and Media under the Decade of Centenaries 2012-23 initiative which provided funding to photograph these gravestones and memorials. 

Publications: The County Kildare Decade of Commemorations Committee supported the publication of Remembrance: The World War I Dead of Co. Kildare in 2021 which contains the biographical details of servicemen and some non-combatants who died, and who were born or lived in County Kildare for an extended period of time before the war. At the time of printing it had been established that 750 men and three women from County Kildare died between the outbreak of the war in August 1914 and the official date of the end of the war as 31 August 1921. Individuals have since supplied further names and eight men have been added to the list. A complete updated list can be found at The World War I Dead of Co. Kildare (updated November 2021).

Dr. Barbara Walsh has researched the lives of women during the war and published a book on Irish Servicewomen in World War I:From Western Front to the Roaring Twenties in 2020. It tells the stories of the volunteers who serve both at home and on the Western Front in the newly founded Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, which young women from every province of Ireland joined along with those from homes in Scotland, England and Wales. She has provided a biographical list of Kildare Women in the First World War which is available here.