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A memorial was unveiled in Kilkenny to remember Thomas Joseph Woodgate, one of the youngest military casualties of the First World War.
The memorial is the latest of several commissioned and organized by the Kilkenny War Memorial Group, which commemorates people from the area who died in the 1914-1918 conflict.
Thomas Joseph Woodgate was from Callan in County Kilkenny, the son of Edward and Hanora Woodgate of Mill Street, and until recently he was assumed to be 18 when he joined the Royal Air Force in late 1918.
He died aboard the RMS Leinster on October 10, 1918, when he was torpedoed by a German submarine near the Kish lighthouse while en route to Holyhead.
In all, 501 lives were lost in that incident which occurred just a month before the end of the war.
In recent years, while research was being conducted on the hundreds of people from the Kilkenny area who died during that war, it was discovered that Thomas Woodgate was actually 14 years old when he was killed and had said that he was 18 to be allowed to join. to the RAF.
“We are very proud of Thomas, but a little sad that he was only 14 when he died,” said great-niece Joan Bryan today.
“The family thought he was 18 years old, but then we found out he was 14. He was born on December 31, 1903 and was baptized the same day.
“He is buried in the Grangegorman Military Cemetery in Dublin. We have been there and now there is a new stone with 14, it used to be 18.”
Thomas Woodgate’s closest living relative is Gary Woodgate, a now 84-year-old nephew, who was also present at today’s opening ceremony in the city.
“He was very, very young. He was only 14 and a half years old, but he seemed older and that’s how he got into it. A lot of them have left since then, a lot of them died,” he said. “We have something to remember him anyway.”
Among those attending the ceremony were Minister of State Malcolm Noonan, Kilkenny County Council Cathaoirleach Andrew McGuinness, Bishop of Ossory Dermot Farrell and Dr. Richard Marsh of St Canice Cathedral, as well as members of the War Memorial Group, including John-Joe Cullen and President Dónal Croghan.
“In our research for the memorials here in Kilkenny, we found out how young he was and confirmed his age with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. We felt we should commemorate him as part of the work that we do,” Croghan said.
“I think as a country, we have matured. First of all, these were Kilkenny men, or boys in these cases. They were Irish and they wore a different uniform. They were erased from history, so it’s important to remember them.”
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