John Condon Yes or No.

[Groundhog]

Has anybody else come across the campaign to review the evidence as to the identity of John Condon and by extension his comrade Tom Carthy. Both men were killed in a German attack on 24th May 1915 near Ypres, Belgium. In 1923 the bodies of several soldiers were disinterred from graves near Railway Wood and two of them were identified as Condon and Carthy. John Condon has become famous as the youngest British soldier to die in WW1. This fact is also disputed by the campaigning organisation.

Opinions anybody?

[hptmurphy]

Nope ...where did you come across this ...any sites relevant?

[Groundhog]

Link below

http://www.cwgc.co.uk/Condonevidence.htm

[yellowjacket]

The evidence presented on the CWGC site seems compelling. How did the myth(as it seems to be) develop so strongly then?

Would neighbours of the family not know his age?

[Groundhog]

I don't think it all that compelling. First of all the age thing is disputed on the grounds that only two John Condons were born in Waterford in the late 1890s. This presumes that the relevant John Condon's birth was actually registered. Unregistered births and inaccurate registrations were commonplace. In my own family for instance my paternal grandfather's birth in 1911 was never registered and in fact he was unable to get the old age pension as a result. My maternal grandmother's birth was registered but with the wrong name given for her mother. And there is the fact that the Waterford records give Condon's mother as Ctherine whereas the CWGC records her name as Mary.

As for the apparent mix up in the bodies Condon ands Fitzsimmons had the same number and the crux seems to be the regiment abbreviation on the boot found with the body 4/RIR being deemed 4th Bn and Condon's having never been in the 4th Royal Irish Regt seems to decide the matter. Again this could be bad record keeping. But the evidence falls down in my mind on the identification of Tom Carthy. He died on the same day as Condon and was identified by the first three digits of his army number on the remains of his braces. Try as they might the revisionists cannot make these three digits match those of anybody who died with Fitzsimmons and there are too many probablys and maybes mentioned in this part of the article to count as evidence.

In my opinion Condon Carthy and some more casualties were carried to a CCS near Railway Wood where they died or were pronounced dead and buried. Short of DNA evidence I think nobody can ever know for sure.