Wills reveal poignant last wishes of Irish soldiers

“In the event of my death,” wrote Patrick Dalton, a driver in the 61st Division Ammunition Column in December 1916, “I wish to leave all my property and effects to my dear mother”.

His will is similar in style and substance to the thousands of others recently made available by the National Archives of Ireland. Soldiers’ Wills is a collection of 9,000 wills made by Irish soldiers who died during the first World War. Dalton was killed eight months after writing his.

“They obviously were given a form of words by their officer,” said Hazel Menton, an archivist who has worked on the project. “In the event of my death I leave everything to my wife, or my mother, or my sister . . .”

According to Ms Menton, the soldiers, who were probably encouraged to make the wills, would have had little to leave their next of kin besides their Army stipend and so tended to bequeath “everything” instead of making an itemised list.

Launching the collection, Minister for Heritage Jimmy Deenihan said he was struck by how many of the young soldiers left their belongings to their mothers.

“It shows that really strong connection between sons and mothers,” he said, “and gives a really human insight into those people who fought in the first World War.”

Mr Deenihan said in the past few years Ireland had started to appreciate the contribution of those who have fought and died during the first and second World Wars. “It’s very important that these people be recognised.”

The collection also contains a handful of wills from Irish soldiers killed during the South African war from 1899 -1902.

In one, sent in 1899 within a love letter, Private Joseph Robinson of the Royal Irish Fusiliers implores his girlfriend Susan Carroll of Virginia, Co Cavan, to remain faithful during his absence.

“I will send you the accompanying photo to keep in memory of me when I am out with the Boers in hope you won’t get married until I see you again,” he wrote. “We will be happy. I am always thinking of you and I love you and no one else.”