Patrick Sharkey / McGarry

Died of Wounds on the 08/10/1916 in Amara, Mesopotamia

The Battalion were in Ferozepore, India on the 04/08/1914. The Battalion had landed in India from Malta in March 1908 and had been stationed at Ferozepore since November 1910. At 11 am, a telephone call gave the Battalion orders to mobilize and the unit boarded the S.S. "Edavana" at Karachi on the 27th August 1914 with a strength of 16 Officers and 893 other ranks. The Battalion was part of the 7th (Ferozepore) Brigade, 3rd (Lahore) Division. On the 26th September, the unit disembarked at Marseilles after a very brief period of service in Egypt. Due to heavy casualties sustained by the 1st and 2nd Battalions, they were amalgamated on the 05/12/1914 at Le Touret. The amalgamated Battalion kept the 1st Battalion's designation. The 1st Battalion served on the Western Front until the 11/12/1915, when the unit embarked onboard the Hired Transport "Huntsend" at Marseilles with a strength of 24 Officers and 813 other ranks. Indian Corps which contained the 3rd (Lahore) and 7th (Meerhut) Divisions was being sent to Mesopotamia. On the 10/01/1916, the "Huntsend" arrived off Basra and the Battalion soon found itself taking part in the unsuccessful attempts to relieve the besieged 6th (Poona) Division at Kut-al-Amara. They were transported up the Tigris River to Kut. Various attempts to reach the trapped British force at Kut met with failure throughout the early months of 1916. Losses among the relieving forces were high as they tried in vain to break through the Turkish lines. Finally, on the 28/04/1916, short of food and water the garrison at Kut surrendered. Throughout the summer of 1916 the ranks of the Connaught Rangers facing the Turkish lines at Kut were decimated by a cholera epidemic, which claimed many lives. On the 02/04/1918 the 1st Battalion Connaught Rangers embarked at Nahr Umar and left Mesopotamia for Egypt having served 2 years and 3 months. During that time the Battalion had 286 fatalities about one third victim of disease and heat stroke. About 2,000 Connaught Rangers served in Mesopotamia. Patrick arrived in France on the 24/03/1915. This man's REAL NAME IS PATRICK MCGARRY. He is listed as SHARKEY on the Memorial and PETER McGARRY in the 1919 book. Service numbers and Battalions both the same as is date of death. He is buried in Amara War Cemetery which contains 4,621 burials of the First World War, more than 3,000 of which were brought into the cemetery after the Armistice. 925 of the graves are unidentified. In 1933, all of the headstones were removed from this cemetery when it was discovered that salts in the soil were causing them to deteriorate. Instead, a screen wall was erected with the names of those buried in the cemetery engraved upon it. Plot XXV is a Collective Grave, the individual burial places within this are not known. See photos for Patrick's Medal Index Card, his Army Register of Soldiers Effects, his Service Medal and Award Rolls x 2, his listing in the Ireland Casualties WW1, his CWGC Grave Registration, his name on the Amara War Cemetery (Screen Wall) Panel List, the Connaught Rangers Cap Badge, the CWGC Iraq Roll of Honour x 4 and Patrick's name in the CWGC Iraq Roll of Honour.