Name
Francis Richard Ryan
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
10/08/1915
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
5759
Royal Munster Fusiliers
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
PINK FARM CEMETERY, HELLES
III. B. 3.
Turkey (including Gallipoli)
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
St Edmunds College Memorial, Old Hall Green
Biography
The following text was transcribed from the The Edmundian (1814-1819) – The contemporary magazine of St Edmund’s College:
At the opening of the scholastic year, 1904, Francis R. Ryan entered St. Edmund's College, as a boy of fourteen, with the intention of studying for the Priesthood. Upon his arrival he was placed in the Third School of Rudiments, where he applied himself to his work with a zeal and energy, which gave every promise of a successful career; for in addition to his serious application to his ordinary schoolboy tasks, he manifested that good solid piety, which comes of a sound Catholic home training, and those responsible for placing him at St. Edmund's had every reason for entertaining great hope for his future as a priest.
For four years he continued to work without any misgiving, but. towards the close of the School year in 1909 his decision was less firm. Ha returned to the College, how¬ever, after the summer vacation to make the Church students' Retreat, and it was during the course of the retreat that he decided he had been mistaken in his vocation, and left the College to enter upon a business career. Filled with a laudable desire to succeed, he continued to study privately for a time before launching out upon his new career, and had consequently barely commenced business life, when war broke out in August, 1914. Immediately he decided that it was his duty to answer his Country's Call, and in the following month he joined the Royal 5th Lancers, and proceeded to Ireland for his training, where once. more lie Set to work with characteristic zeal, and soon became a first-class shot and a fully trained Lancer. Owing to the greater demand for Infantrymen, however, he was drafted into the Royal Munster Fusiliers, and it was with this regiment that he left Ireland for Active Service in the Dardanelles in the beginning of last July.
Throughout his short military career his one desire was to help his Country in her momentous struggle, and this in spite of premonition of his impending fate; for in his last letter to are he wrote: "I do not care myself as long as my mother is all right, and that 1 do my duty at the Front like a soldier. Still, it is the great adventure, and you know how used we must get in the barrack room, to death, and besides what a Glorious. End!"
Unhappily that end cause all too soon; for scarcely had he landed, when he was mortally wounded and died in hospital on the 10th of August. He died as a soldier, and one of whom his `Alma Mater' may well he proud. A particularly sad feature is, that he was an only son, and whilst commending his soul to the prayers of all ‘Edmundians' we also ask them to remember the mother, who made such a noble sacrifice, and is now left to mourn her bitter loss.
Acknowledgments
Jonty Wild, Di Vanderson, The Edmundian (1814-1819) – The contemporary magazine of St Edmund’s College
