Sgt Major Keogh on Patrick Keogh
The roll book shows him with this regiment and number. On MI5 files with this service number
1891 Jun 6. Born Patrick Keogh Thurles: Jul - Sep 1891 Volume : 3 Page : 461. The census fits with Keogh's description of him being a man from Thurles. However the age does not fit the roll book which points to birth circa 1896 in Tipperary. There is a Jul/Sep birth in 1896 in Cashel.
1901 The family are living at Stradavoher, Thurles Town.
1911 Census Overseas Military and England gives nothing under Royal Irish Regiment. The 1911 Irish Census has this man aged 20 a son of the now widowed James Keogh. Living at 136 Stradavoher, Thurles, Tipperary. Casement just has him as a labourer before enlisting.
1913 His service number points to enlisting in late 1913, around November or December
1914 Taken prisoner, and followed the rest of the Irish Brigade through Limburg, Zossen and Danzig
1915 Sep 18. Appears to have had a 5 day sentence from roll book.
Keogh tells the story of "buglar Pat" rolling home late to camp early in 1916 after a night out on the town with some German soldiers. He gave the wrong pass to the guard as he got back to camp. As a result got sentenced to 10 days black bread and water in the Prussian Guards Military Prison
1915 Oct. His Irish address is given as Church St, Thurles
1915 Nov 19. Hahn writes to Casement asking him to authorise the removal of a number of men for drunkeness and /or insubordination, adding that Dowling and Quinlisk agree with this request. He is on that list, but Casement did not act on it
1916 Jan Volunteered for service in Egypt
1917 Jan 10. They had a hut inspection one day from an American official, who they mistook for someone from Dublin, and gave him information about themselves that they should not have give. Soon after this the NCOs appear to have drawn up a black list of grumblers and men branded as English. And some days later a fully armed section of German troops entered the barracks, and the Irish Brigade NCOs seemed aware of what was happening. Nine or ten names were read out, and the men ordered to have their kit ready to leave in 5 minutes. They were then marched out of the camp under guard and into as Rahilly says "slavery", a punishment camp. A letter that Burke wrote to Gaffney about their treatment confirms the state of affirs given by Rahilly, and one can arrive at list the men sent to the punishment camp from putting together information from Burke and O'Toole, plus the official list from Hahn gives:-
They went by train and road until they found themselves in a hut built near a river at Quadsow (now Kwasowo in Poland) in a wilderness. Quadsow was a punishment camp, and I am not clear how these men had been selected to be taken there. This was their home. They slept on damp mud and the walls of the hut were damp. They worked from dawn to dusk, reinforcing the banks of the river. All they ever had for meals were hot drinks, no food. Two months later 5 of these men returned (these must have been Fulford, McMahon, McCabe, Patrick Keogh, Thomas McGrath, P Carr). Their appearance had changed, they were now bearded and pale, their eyes full of fear, their bodies bloated from hot drinks but no food. They were bullied by the guards, butted with rifles. Later that evening of their return Rahilly found that one had cut his own throat with a rusty razor. He made a recovery, but not a full recovery, and died later in 1918 "during the armistice". This man has to be Gunner Carr as he is the only man whose death fits - 15 Sep 1918
1918 Nov . O'Toole when he was debriefed gives a list of men whom he says left Danzig camp soon after the armistice, insisting on going to a POW camp in order to be transported home. He appears on O'Toole's list
Keogh says active 3rd Tipperary Battalion of Old IRA.1920, 1921
1924 first light-welterweight champion of Irish Defence Forces
1940 died. Keogh's notes say he went to USA