My God and my All ... Deus Meus et Omnia.
London Gazette 26th June 1915
Reverend Jerome Walsh commissioned as a Chaplain to the Forces
4th Class
Father Jerome Walsh received his "call up" letter dated 17th June 1915 at The Friary Gorton - (the same day Father Athanasius Johnston received his at Fort Matilda) .... Father Jerome was also instructed to proceed to Folkstone as soon as possible - to embark for France and Flanders . He arrived in Boulogne June 26th 1915.
He was born Timothy Walsh (the son of Thomas Walsh & Hanorah Buckley) on 7 May 1878 at Coolaclarig, Listowel, County Kerry, Ireland - he grew up in Coolaclarig, an area that had a great tradition for Gaelic football. He had fresh complexion, dark hair, grey eyes and his height was 5'9, As Captain Jerome Walsh - in the trenches of France and Flanders, Father Jerome Walsh OFM went about the task of trying to keep up the morale of the British soldiers, he was "privy " to the emotions and thoughts and all the frustration, and determination of those fighting the war and of all the horrors of the front.
He was associated with 15 Casualty Clearing Station - the CCS was the first large, well-equipped medical facility that the wounded men would visit - it's role was to keep all serious cases that were unfit for further travel - usually a tented camp and often grouped into clusters of two or three in a small area, a few miles behind the lines and on a railway line. The institution of these small mobile hospitals near the fighting line had revolutionized the surgery of the War, and was the means of saving thousands of lives. When the attacks began, the ambulances would begin to arrive - into the tent came the soldiers - carried in on stretchers, or they came tiredly stumbling, figures in khaki, wrapped in blankets or coats, bandaged or splinted. All of them stiff with mud, or caked with blood and dust, and sweat.
This was the world Father Jerome grew accustomed to - finishing his work in silence, overcome with fatigue, with horror, with pity, thinking that the very battle where these things were done - may last for days - dying emotionally every time a shell burst overhead, yet whenever a man was wounded - he would be there to cheer him up, or if he were dying, would give him extreme unction, tenderly pressing the cross to the lips of the man - no matter how heavy the shelling.
Hazebrouck Jul 1915 - Sep 1917
Ebblinghem Apr 1918 - Jun 1918
Affringues briefly in Jun 1918
Anvin Jul 1918 - Sep 1918
Rouitz Sep 1918 - Oct 1918 and Jan 1919 - Sep 1919
Don Oct 1918 - Jan 1919
In 1918 the 15 Casualty Clearing Station was at Ebbinghem until the middle of May - from the beginning of the German Spring Offensive (21st March 1918) many units had been in a state of constant upheaval - packing up, moving, not moving, Germans coming, Germans not here yet - fairly chaotic.They took casualties from everywhere as British units retreated ....... many forward medical units had to close in the face of the German attack, and the subsequent shelling and bombing - 15 CCS closed on 17th June 1918, so the entire period that they were in Anvin, they were 'on hold' with a skeleton staff. They re-opened on 18th September 1918 in Ruitz, as the allies once again moved forward. From the time they went to Don in October, they became a medical unit, entirely devoted to the care of soldiers with Influenza, and also to French refugees. They were doing no surgical work at all, and the theaters were closed except for the occasional emergency. The work was vastly different at the end from what it had been at the beginning.
Open-air treatment Casualty Clearing Station 1915Father Jerome served in the British Army for 4 years, 3 months and in all that time he only went on leave 6 times ! .... one being an extended medical leave because he had "the Flu " in July of 1918 - when he stayed at the Franciscan house in Stratford London to recover - in spite of that - he returned to the front in August of that year
He went home 24 Sep. 1919 - and went straight to the Alexandra Pavillion for Officers in Grosvenor Gardens - then on to St Anne's on Sea Lancashire before returning home to The Friary at Gorton.
Father Jerome would certainly have qualified for medals but as an (equivalent of an) officer rank - he'd have had to apply for them ... as there was no application ... there were no medals issued.
The Reverand Jerome ( Timothy ) Walsh Temporary Chaplain to the Forces (R.C.), 4th Class, Royal Army Chaplains Department was born in on 7 May 1878 at Coolaclarig, Listowel, County Kerry, Ireland. He was received into the Franciscan Order on 8 August 1894 at Gorton, Manchester receiving the religious name JEROME Made his temporary profession 9 August 1895 in Buckingham. His solemn profession 4 May 1899 at Forest Gate London and he was ordained a priest 27 January 1901. In 1903 - 1906 he was at the Friary in Gorton Manchester. In 1908 he was the Guardian at Gorton Manchester. In 1913 a Vicar of the Friary at Stratford London. He was commissioned as an Army Chaplain 4th Class on 25th April 1915. He served in the Army Chaplains' Department in France and Flanders from 26 June 1915. He relinquished his Temporary Commission September 1919 and returned to The Friary at Gorton . After disembarkment in 1919, went to America to serve with Bishop Garrigan of Sioux City Iowa. He arrived in New York on the ship SS Columbia in December 1919. He was Temporary Assistant - Sioux City - Cathedral of the Epiphany 1919, Assistant Pastor - Sioux City - St Jean Baptiste ( Assistant to Father Plante ) 1919 - 1920, Assistant Pastor - Sioux City St Joseph ( Assistant to Father Zimmerman - attending Annunciation Parish ) 1920 - 1923, Pastor - Canton MO St Joseph c Mission La Grange Immaculate Conception Diocese St Joseph MO 1924 - 1926, Pastor - Shrine of St Patrick St Patricks MO 1927 - 1928
Father Jerome Walsh died in Keokuk Iowa on 8 June 1928 and was buried in Calvary Cemetery Chicago
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