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Guardsman John Doole was very tall for the time, almost 6 foot, a perfect recruit for a guard’s regiment. So, he joined the Irish Guards on the 8th of June 1915.

Guardsman Doole’s training finished, and he joined the 2nd Battalion, Irish Guards in the field on the 31st, October 1915 after leaving Southampton on the 26th. The battalion he joined had been in France since the previous August when they had joined the 2nd Guards Brigade, Guards Division.

John joined the battalions as they rested in battalion reserve at Bourecq[1] in France, some 20 miles west of the front line. He is one of 85 men to arrive during that time. The pause in reserve was short and by the middle of November the battalion was back in the trenches. The weather was now getting horrible and conditions in the trenches were getting worse by the day, with snipers adding to the misery of the rain and mud.

It was not long though before the weather got even worse when the battalion marched off to Laventie[2] in a full blizzard. the weather then thawed, and everything turned to mud again. Life continued like this, with the battalion performing small raids and mainly trying to stay dry and warm. They spent Christmas in the trenches and went into billets in Laventie a few days later to receive their Christmas dinner and drinks.

January 1916 began with the men returning to trenches they had manned prior to December. Here they were filmed and photographed for the news. The weather and conditions remained miserable, but casualties were low.

Life continued like this right through until March when they withdrew to Calais[3] for battalion games and training. Here they also celebrated Saint Patrick’s Day with a dinner and later time around a bonfire. The celebrations were 2 days earlier, due to them leaving on the 17th for Ypres.[4]

On arriving in Ypres, a true vision of hell awaited the men. The city was destroyed. Shelling was constant and the trenches were in bad condition. The Irish Guards continued their duty and by April the routine of fixing trenches, being shelled and casualties were back. On the 24th they went back to the frontline. Two days later Guardsman John Doole was wounded. Lucky for him he left the front line for a dressing station. Where he remained for nearly a month.

On the 23rd of May 1916, John re-joined the battalion in a camp near Vlamertinghe.[5] The battalion remained in reserve, support and recovery until the end of June when they once again moved towards the frontline.

The 2nd of July was the night of a big raid on the German trenches. As the men advanced, they were caught by German machinegun fire. Although the raids are successful, there are many casualties. John is one of them. He was shot in the chest and the arm and was stretchered out of the area and onto a dressing station and then hospital. He remained in hospital and fully recovered. On the 28th of June 1917 he once again re-joined the 2nd Battalion, who had just gone into reserve. A few weeks later he was transferred to the 7th Irish Guards on the 7th of August 1917.

John did not spend long with the 7th as he was gassed on the 8th of Sept 1917 and would then remain in hospital until January 1918 recovering from the side-effects of chemical warfare. He would then re-join the 7th, but once again only for a short time before his ill health made him transfer to the 4th (Extra Reserves) during September 1918 in England. He would though return to the 2nd Battalion to finish the war at the front line where he would be wounded again during January 1919.

Guardsman Dooley would leave for England during February 1919 and then to Ireland where he was discharged to Class Z Reserve on 18th April 1919. His health though was now extremely poor, and he would eventually pass away at Mater Hospital, Belfast just over a year later from blood poisoning caused by a gunshot wound he had received in his knee during the war.

Date of Death: 12/08/1920 (Aged 29)

Service: Guardsman, 1st, 2nd and 4th Battalions, Irish Guards

Service Number: 8737

Burial Location: South East of church. Dromore (St. Comgall) Church of Ireland Churchyard


[1] Bourecq is an area in northwest France, close to the Belgium border.

[2] Laventie is around 20 miles to the west of Loos in northern France.

[3] Calais is a port on the northern coast of France.

[4] Ypres is in southern Belgium, some 60 miles east of Calais.

[5] Vlamertinghe in 2.5 miles east of Ypres in southern Belgium.

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