Celbridge’s Victoria Cross – Lieutenant Colonel John Augustus Conolly
Project: Celbridge’s Military Story
It as a real honour today to visit the graveside of Celbridge’s own Victoria Cross recipient at Mount Jerome Cemetery in Dublin: Lieutenant Colonel John Augustus Conolly. Growing up in Celbridge I knew nothing of this man or his service. We hope by recording his story it will forever be a part of Celbridge.
John Augustus Conolly circa 1850s. (Courtesy of the Guards Museum)
John Augustus Conolly was born on 30 May 1829 in Castletown, Celbridge, to Edward Michael Conolly MP and Catherine Jane, daughter of Chambre Brabazon Ponsonby-Barker.
John enlisted in the 49th Regiment of Foot (later the Royal Berkshire Regiment, today The Rifles) and served in the Eastern Campaign/Crimean War of 1854. He was present at the Battles of Alma and the Siege of Sebastopol. On 26 October 1854 he was shot through the chest and seriously wounded after a Russian attack at Shell Hill. The Russian attack was repulsed by heavy fire from Allied guns, and infantry led by Lieutenant Conolly. Field Marshal Sir Evelyn Wood VC later wrote that the Russians: ‘fell back and our infantry pursued them, being led most gallantly by Lieutenant Conolly’.
For this gallantry, Conolly was awarded the Victoria Cross (gazetted 5 May 1857) and promoted into the Coldstream Guards. At Hyde Park on 26 June 1857 Queen Victoria awarded the first Victoria Cross’s to 62 officers and men; one of these gallant heroes was a Celbridge man, then Brevet-Major John Augustus Conolly.
He later married on 4 August 1864 to Ida Charlotte Burnaby from Baggrave Hall, Leicestershire. She died in 1886. They had 5 children: John Richard Arthur, Alice Geta Katherine, Conagh Edwina, Louisa Augusta and Irene Beatrice.
John Conolly was eventually promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and retired from the Army in 1863. He became a Sub-Commissioner in the Dublin Metropolitan Police, and later Resident Magistrate for the Curragh of Kildare. He died on 23 December 1888 in the Curragh, and was laid beside his wife at Mount Jerome Cemetery, Dublin.
John Augustus Conolly lays at rest with his wife Ida in Mount Jerome Cemetery in Harold’s Cross, Dublin. (Photo by Michael Coyne)
Lieutenant Colonel John Augustus Conolly VC is remembered with pride at Castletown House and Parklands, the Berkshire Regimental museum and the Guards Museum who kindly helped us with images of John Conolly.
This project is made possible with funding from Kildare County Council.
Cork’s Arnhem Victoria Cross Flight Lieutenant David Lord
Flight Lieutenant David Lord. (Image: Royal Air Force)
75 years ago, Allied forces in Europe launched Operation Market Garden: an air and land operation derived to drive a 103km salient in German occupied Netherlands and establish a bridgehead over the River Rhine. Market Garden consisted of two sub-operations: Market – an airborne assault to seize key bridges, and; Garden – a ground attack moving over the seized bridges creating the salient. The airborne part of the operation was undertaken by the First Allied Airborne Army while the land operation by was undertaken by XXX Corps of the British Second Army. Market Garden was the largest airborne operation up to that point in World War II.
Amongst the British Army contingent were several Irish units including: 2nd Battalion, Royal Ulster Rifles; 8th King’s Royal Irish Hussars; 2nd Armoured Battalion, Irish Guards; and 3rd Battalion, Irish Guards. This does not account for the unknown number of Irishmen or of Irish descent in other Allied units: a possible figure of several thousand. Many were recognised for their bravery; one such man was Flight Lieutenant David Lord.
David Lord
David Samuel Anthony Lord was born on 18 October 1913 in Cork, Ireland, one of three sons of Samuel (a Warrant Officer in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers) and Mary Lord (née Miller). Following the Great War, the family were posted to British India and Lord attended Lucknow Convent School. The family then moved to Wrexham after his father retired from service. David then attended St Mary’s College, Aberystwyth, and then went on to the University of Wales. Later, he attended the English College, Valladolid, Spain to study for the priesthood. This was not for his however, and he returned and moved to London.
Royal Air Force
Lord enlisted in the Royal Air Force on 6 August 1936. After reaching the rank of corporal in August 1938, he applied to become a pilot, which he began in October 1938. Successfully gaining his pilot’s wings, he became a sergeant pilot in April 1939, and was posted to No. 31 Squadron RAF, based in Lahore, India. In 1941, No. 31 Squadron was the first unit to receive the Douglas DC-2 which was followed by both the Douglas DC-3 and Dakota transports. That year he was promoted to flight sergeant and then warrant officer. He flew in North Africa in support of troops in Libya and Egypt for four months, before being posted back to India. He was commissioned a pilot officer in May 1942, and went on to fly supply missions over Burma.
Lord was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) in July 1943, and was promoted to flight lieutenant shortly afterwards. By January 1944, he was with No. 271 Squadron (based at RAF Down Ampney, Gloucestershire) and began training as part of preparations for the invasion of Europe. On D-Day, Lord carried paratroopers into France and his aircraft was hit by flak, and returned to base without flaps.
Operation Market Garden and Victoria Cross
A German photograph of a supply drop over Arnhem. (Image: Bundesarchiv)
During operation Market Garden in September 1944, the British 1st Airborne Division and Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade were tasked with securing bridges across the Lower Rhine, the final objectives of the operation. However, the airborne forces that dropped on 17 September were not aware that the 9th SS and 10th SS Panzer Divisions were near Arnhem for rest and refit. The Allies suffered heavily against the unexpected Panzergrenadiers, tanks and self-propelled guns. Only a small force held one end of the Arnhem road bridge before being overrun on 21 September. The rest of the division became trapped in a small pocket west of the bridge and had to be evacuated on 25 September.
During the battle for Arnhem, No. 271 Squadron, was tasked with resupplying the trapped airborne troops. On 19 September Lord’s Douglas Dakota III ‘KG374’ encountered intense enemy anti-aircraft fire and was twice hit, with one engine burning. Lord managed to drop his supplies, but at the end of the run found that he had two containers remaining. Although he knew that one of his wings might collapse at any moment, he nevertheless made a second run to drop the last supplies, he then ordered his crew to bail out. A few seconds later, the Dakota crashed in flames with its pilot and six crew members. Only the navigator, Flying Officer Harold King, survived, becoming a prisoner of war. It was only on his release in mid-1945, as well as the release of several paratroopers from the 10th Parachute Battalion, that the story of Lord’s action became known and he was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross.
Victoria Cross citation Lord’s VC appeared in a supplement to the London Gazette on 9 November 1945, reading:
Air Ministry, 13 November 1945.
The KING has been graciously pleased to confer the VICTORIA CROSS on the undermentioned officer in recognition of most conspicuous bravery:—
Flight Lieutenant David Samuel Anthony LORD, D.F.C. (49149), R.A.F., 271 Sqn. (deceased).
Flight Lieutenant Lord was pilot and captain of a Dakota aircraft detailed to drop supplies at Arnhem on the afternoon of 19 September 1944. Our airborne troops had been surrounded and were being pressed into a small area defended by a large number of anti-aircraft guns. Air crews were warned that intense opposition would be met over the dropping zone. To ensure accuracy they were ordered to fly at 900 feet when dropping their containers.
While flying at 1,500 feet near Arnhem the starboard wing of Flight Lieutenant Lord’s aircraft was twice hit by anti-aircraft fire. The starboard engine was set on fire. He would have been justified in leaving the main stream of supply aircraft and continuing at the same height or even abandoning his aircraft. But on learning that his crew were uninjured and that the dropping zone would be reached in three minutes he said he would complete his mission, as the troops were in dire need of supplies.
By now the starboard engine was burning furiously. Flight Lieutenant Lord came down to 900 feet, where he was singled out for the concentrated fire of all the anti-aircraft guns. On reaching the dropping zone he kept the aircraft on a straight, and level course while supplies were dropped. At the end of the run, he was told that two containers remained.
Although he must have known that the collapse of the starboard wing could not be long delayed, Flight Lieutenant Lord circled, rejoined the stream of aircraft and made a second run to drop the remaining supplies. These manoeuvres took eight minutes in all, the aircraft being continuously under heavy anti-aircraft fire.
His task completed, Flight Lieutenant Lord ordered his crew to abandon the Dakota, making no attempt himself to leave the aircraft, which was down to 500 feet. A few seconds later, the starboard wing collapsed and the aircraft fell in flames. There was only one survivor, who was flung out while assisting other members of the crew to put on their parachutes.
By continuing his mission in a damaged and burning aircraft, descending to drop the supplies accurately, returning to the dropping zone a second time and, finally, remaining at the controls to give his crew a chance of escape, Flight Lieutenant Lord displayed supreme valour and self-sacrifice.
Lord’s Victoria Cross was presented to his parents at Buckingham Palace in December 1945. In 1997, Lord’s VC, along with his other decorations and medals, were sold at auction by Spinks to Lord Ashcroft. As of 2014, the medal group was on display at the Imperial War Museum.
You can read more on Flight Lieutenant Lord: Flight Lieutenant David Lord, Victoria Cross: an Arnhem Hero, by James Patrick Hynes.
At the beginning of World War I tank warfare was not in the manuals of the day. To break the deadlock of trench warfare however, the belligerent nations began to develop armed armoured tracked vehicles. These were crude machines. By Autumn 1917, the tank had made its appearance on the battlefield. Clement Robertson, from Delgany in Wicklow, was one of the first to volunteer for the newly established Tank Regiment – and the first tank Victoria Cross recipient. Robertson Family
Captain Clement Robertson VC, circa 1916. (Image from author’s collection)
Clement was born on 15 December, 1890, in Pietermaritzburg,
South Africa as his father was serving there at the time. He had four brothers,
three older and one younger. His great grandfather was William Robertson who
married Margaret Jameson in 1801. She was the daughter of John Jameson the
founder of the John Jameson and Sons Distillery and Margaret Haig (daughter of
John Haig the original proprietor of John Haig and Sons). His father John
Albert Robertson was born in 1851; he was in the Royal Artillery and served in
South Africa. He retired after the Boer War and settled more permanently in
Delgany in County Wicklow. The five sons were all involved in serving King and
Country in one way or another. William Cairns Robertson (1882-1950) DSO Royal
Artillery, Albert John Robertson (1884-1954) (My Grandfather) Royal Navy Rear
Admiral and MVO, Sir Fredrick Robertson Kt Bach CSI CIE (1885-1964) was in the
Indian Civil Service, Clement Robertson VC (1890-1917) KIA, and Charles Wyndham
Robertson (1892- 1971) served with the Monmouthshire Regiment. Charles then joined
the engineer firm John Jameson & Sons after the war.
William Cairns Robertson DSO, the eldest, became a
Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Garrison Artillery like his father. He had
joined at the end of the Boer War and served in the Great War. He was awarded the
DSO in 1918 and was mentioned in Despatches. Albert John was my Grandfather. He
chose the Royal Navy. He was born in 1884 and like his brothers was educated at
Hill House, St. Leonards on Sea. He joined the HMS Britannia Royal Naval
College in 1898 and went to sea as a midshipman in 1900. After his promotion to
Lieutenant in 1905 he specialised in the navigation branch. Throughout the
Great War he served with the Second Cruiser Squadron of the Grand Fleet. He was
navigator on HMS Achilles and was there during the engagement with the sinking
of the disguised German Auxiliary Cruiser Leopold in March 1917, in defence of
the armed boarding steamer Dundee, which the Leopold had attacked.
Albert was mentioned in dispatches following this engagement and noted for early promotion as ‘an exceptionally skilful and cool navigation officer’. From June 1918, he served on the armoured cruiser HMS Minotaur. These ships operated in the North Atlantic protecting merchant shipping. HMS Minotaur was involved in the Battle of Jutland in 1916. These two ships were Warrior Class Armoured Cruisers. Albert was thrown into the freezing Atlantic Ocean on a couple of occasions and this affected his health in later life. After the war, he worked at the Portsmouth Navigation School and from 1922 until his promotion to Captain he was navigator on the Royal Yacht Victoria and Albert. He became Captain of Dockyard and Kings Harbourmaster at Portsmouth from 1931 to 1933 and became ADC to King George V. He retired on promotion to Flag Rank in 1936. He was also a member of the Royal Victorian Order.
Sir Fredrick, I don’t know that much about, except that he
worked in the Indian Civil Service. He left Trinity College Dublin in 1908 with
a BA. He was in the Indian Civil Service from 1909 to 1937. He had a number of
different positions and clearly did well because he was knighted in 1945. He
was awarded the Honour of ‘Companion of the Star of India’ in 1941, and the
‘Companion of the Indian Empire’ in 1935.
Charles Robertson, the youngest, studied engineering at
Trinity College Dublin and hadn’t finished his degree when war broke out. He
joined the Royal Monmouthshire Regiment and served during the war in Palestine
and Egypt. The Monmouthshire Regiment were engineers and built bridges, roads
and defence works. He was mentioned in Despatches. Following the war, he went
to the Sudan on an irrigation project. His later life was spent as a director of
John Jameson and Sons Distillery. His passion was golf and he won the Irish
Close Championship in 1925 as a member of Delgany Golf Club.
‘Later that year at the end of September the push towards Passchendaele was in progress. By this time Clement had been promoted and was now Acting Captain and in command of a section consisting of five tanks.’
The five brothers were all fanatical golf players and were founder members of Delgany Golf Club. It is Fredrick whose name appears on the monument at the entrance to the Club as one of the founders in 1908. Clement won the Captain’s prize in 1908 and Charles won the Presidents Cup the following year.
Family photo taken at Struan Hill, Delgany, where they lived. Clement is on the back left, Fredrick beside him. Parents in the middle, seated, and Charles on ground in front, circa1904. (Image author’s collection)
Early Life
Although born in South Africa, Clements pent his childhood in Delgany. He went to Haileybury College in England and then to Trinity College Dublin to study Engineering. He graduated in 1909, and went to Egypt to work on the Nile Irrigation Project. With the outbreak of war, he returned to England and joined the 19th (Service) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers. He applied for a Commission in the 3rd Reserve Battalion, Queen’s Royal (West Surrey)Regiment and was successful. This was 1916 and, in an effort, to break the stalemate of trench warfare on the Western Front they were secretly developing and testing a large, armoured, mobile vehicle with cannon and machine guns. This machine, they hoped, could travel through no-man’s land, crushing the barbed wire defences, cross the enemy trenches and fire sideways down the length of the trenches. The Heavy Machine Gun Corps was being formed. This would later become the Tank Corps and later styled the Royal Tank Regiment.
Clement volunteered, and with his engineering background,
was accepted as one of the first officers appointed. He went to Belgium in
January 1917 as a Tank Commander. He was in action in early June 1917, in the
assault and taking of the Messines Ridge. His tank was part of X Corps and in
support of units of the London Regiment of 140th (4th London) Brigade, part of
41st Division. I have walked the route he took that morning from Arundel House
towards his objective at White Chateau Stables and on to Opal Reserve and have
seen where his tank was hit by a 5.9- inch artillery shell. The left Sponson was
badly damaged. Three of his crew were hit; Sergeant William Clegg was killed
and two others were badly wounded. I have visited the grave of Sergeant Clegg
in the Dikkebusch New Military Cemetery; killed in action 7 June, 1917, aged
32, from Burnley in Lancashire. The tank could not precede and had to limp back
to base.
Passchendaele
Later that year at the end of Septemberthe push towards Passchendaele was inprogress. By this time Clement had beenpromoted and was now Acting Captain andin command of a section consisting of fivetanks. On October 4th, he was to take histanks into action at a small village calledReutel, a few miles east of Ypres, in supportof the infantry. The front line was on thesoutheast corner of Polygon Wood. Thetanks had to be brought safely in darknessand under heavy shellfire to that point first.
For three nights prior to this, Clement and Gunner Cyril Allen worked, without sleep, to reconnoitre and tape a safe route for the tanks to take. This was the Third Battle of Ypres and by now the ground was a bare sea of mud and craters. You will have seen the photographs showing just stumps where trees once grew, mud so deep that a man could drown in it. The hard ground of the damaged road was the only way. Eventually on 4 October, they were to move up to the start line. They crawled from Sterling Castle, through Black Watch Corner and along the south side of Polygon Wood. Constantly under shellfire and with the weather deteriorating, Clement and his assistant were not happy that they could follow the tapes safely from inside the tanks. They therefore got out of the tanks and Clement and Cyril Allen guided the tanks on foot. They reached the start point at 3am and rested for a few hours and at dawn they moved off. Clement knew that there was still a real danger of the tanks missing their way. So, with great determination he continued to lead them on foot. The small bridge over the Reutelbeek miraculously was still intact. It was the only way to cross the marshy ground to their objectives on the other side of the small valley. Captain Robertson was certain that if the tanks failed to see the bridge and follow the hard ground to it then action would be lost.
Image from the Illustrated War News report on Clement’s action.
‘The gunfire was intense by now and was concentrated on the leading tanks. The commander of the first tank was amazed to see Clement still untouched‘
The German barrage came down furiously, rifles cracked,
machine guns spluttered, but the two lone figures went ever forward. They were
well ahead of the infantry now, the only two living creatures to be seen.
Bullets whistled by them, flattening with a dull sound against the thick hides
of the following tanks, shell bursts flung showers of mud over them, but they
walked on, unhurt and undeterred. At last they came to the bridge. Gunner Allen
went back to guide the rear tanks and Clement guided the leading tank over and
then the others one by one. The gunfire was intense by now and was concentrated
on the leading tanks. The commander of the first tank was amazed to see Clement
still untouched. The tanks were now safe to continue to their respective
objectives and when Gunner Allen reached the bridge, he could not see his
Captain. The fire was so intense that, in his own words he ‘had to crawl on my
hands and knees’ eventually finding his brave Captain in a shell hole, shot in
the head. Gunner Allen took maps and documents from Clement’s body and finally
took shelter in one of the last tanks. Clement was 26 years old. The Tank Section
went forward and successfully drove the enemy from their strong points.
For his actions on 4 October, Clement was awarded the
Victoria Cross (VC) and his medal was presented to his mother by Brigadier
General C. Williams CB, Commanding Dublin District at the Royal Barracks in
Dublin. It is sad that she did not feel up to the journey to London to have it
presented by the King, as would be customary.
Acting Captain, The
Queen’s Royal West Surrey Regiment, attached to A Battalion, Tank Corps
The citation reads:
On 4 October 1917 at Zonnebeke, Belgium, Captain Robertson led his tanks in attack under heavy shell, machine-gun and rifle fire over ground which had been ploughed by shell-fire. He and his batman had spent the previous three days and nights going back and forth over the ground, reconnoitering and taping routes, and, knowing the risk of the tanks missing the way, he now led them on foot, guiding them carefully towards their objective, although he must have known that this action would almost certainly cost him his life. He was killed after the objective had been reached, but his skilful leading had already ensured success.
Gunner Allen was awarded the DCM (Distinguished Conduct
Medal) for his splendid devotion to duty. It was unfortunately not long before
death claimed him also. He was killed some seven weeks later in Cambrai where
the tanks were next to go into action. His body was not found and his name
appears in the Louvreval Memorial. Killed in action on 20 November, 1917. He
wrote a letter to my Grandmother outlining the events leading up to Clement’s death.
It is a moving a poignant letter, beautifully written in pencil and using wonderful
English. The sadness is in the fact that he never got a chance to send this letter
to my Grandmother. It only appeared a few years ago when a relation was looking
through some of Cyril’s effects that had survived and been kept in an attic for
90 years.
Clement Robertson is commemorated on a plaque in Delgany Parish Church and on the Memorial in Trinity College Dublin. He is buried in Oxford Road Cemetery in Belgium near where he fell.
On 4 October 2017, the friends of the Tank Memorial Ypres Salient organised a special centenary remembrance ceremony dedicated to Captain Clement Robertson VC of the Royal Tank Corps. At this occasion the bridge at the Reutelbeek was officially named ‘Robertson’s Bridge’.
(Images: http://www.wo1.be)
This article first appeared in the Victoria Cross Journal in March 2014. Ian Robertson, Clément’s nephew, served with the Irish Guards and today is Chairman of the Irish Guards Association in the Rep. of Ireland.
