237313 Pte. Thomas Harkin British Army 8th Btn. Royal Dublin Fusiliers (d.18th March 1916) Thomas Harkin is known to me through the stories my mother used to tell me. Her mother, my grandmother, was a Harkin. According to the stories she told me it seems that Thomas wanted to become an engineer.
He was told by the recruiter that he would be trained as an engineer if he joined up. He had some military training in Ireland and then shipped out to France.
A few months after he arrived, he was killed. According to what my mother told me, he was gassed.
I have since been able to confirm some of the details.
Not many of his direct family are still alive and apart from my direct relatives I have only met one other (now elderly) person who now lives in England near Manchester.
I have visited the memorial in France where his name is recorded at Dud Corner near Loos.
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