Posts by Edmund O'Sullivan
Guts and tragedy: the London Irish Lofting brothers
It’s not unusual for brothers to serve together in time of war but John and Harry Lofting, junior officers in the London Irish Rifles when the Second World War began, were exceptional. Their father, Henry, was a Londoner who worked for the Eastern Telegraph Company, which owned and operated telegraph links between the UK and…
Read MoreThe London Irish officer killed in Tunisia who lost two brothers in the Great War
On 20 January 1943, Captain Sydney Montrose Ekin was walking in the footsteps of two brothers who had fought and died in the First World War when he crossed the attack Start Line on the Bou Arada to Goubellat road, 50 miles south west of Tunis, A Cambridge University law graduate who had been commissioned…
Read MoreA Pictorial History, from Algeria to Austria
We shall be adding links to photographs tracking the progess of the Irish Brigade’s fighting journey from the time of their arrival in Algiers during November 1942 to the brigade’s crossing into Austria in early May 1945. These photographs are reproduced from the Imperial War Museum’s archives. The first series covering the Tunisian campaign can…
Read MoreDeserters in North Africa and Italy
On 4 February 1943, a Sergeant in the 6th Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (the Skins) was sent to Bone (now Annaba in Algeria) to collect three deserters caught trying to get a boat back to Britain. They had managed to make the 150-mile journey from the Irish Brigade’s positions in Tunisia undetected. It suggests they…
Read MoreThe London Irish Rifleman who walked to freedom
January and February of 1945 were among the coldest winter months recorded in Europe in the entire 20th century. In Silesia, then part of the Third Reich but now in Poland, temperatures fell to 25 degrees centigrade below freezing. These were the conditions that faced Prisoners of War (POWs) at the Stalag VIII camp near…
Read More2 LIR in North Africa, June 1943
A photograph taken in the summer of 1943 in Algeria shows twenty five officers of the 2nd Battalion of the London Irish Rifles (2 LIR) as they prepared to join the Allied invasion of Sicily. It was a little more than six months after the Battalion had landed in Algiers as part of Operation Torch,…
Read MoreSecond World War heroes who scrummed for Ireland
There was a roar of excitement for the first scrum of the Ireland versus Wales international at Belfast’s Ravenhill Stadium on the afternoon of Saturday 3rd April 1937. England had already been declared that year’s champions having successively defeated Wales, Ireland and Scotland. Ireland was playing to be runners up; Wales to avoid the wooden…
Read MoreCaptain James Justin McPhillips
We received a very nice note from the daughter of Captain James McPhillips who served with the 6th Bn Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in Tunisia and Italy during 1943/44, suffering wounds on two occasions. In the note to us, Angela Gawthorpe told us: “I have just watched part 5 of ‘All my Brothers’. Thank you so…
Read MoreFusilier Harold Mellor
We received an excellent note from the son of Fusilier Harold Mellor, who served with the 6th and 2nd Inniskillings in Italy and Austria. In his note to us, Stephen Mellor told us: “ My father died in 2000 and three years ago I commenced research into my father’s war experiences in order to…
Read MoreFull house in Omagh for All My Brothers film
A full house and an appreciative audience saw the fourth episode of All My Brothers, the Story of the Irish Brigade in the Second World War at the Strule Arts Theatre in Omagh on 14 January. The film covered the role of the Irish Brigade in the Adriatic Campaign in October-December 1943 and in front-line…
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