Macinerney of Blakemount, co. Clare and Australia in WWI

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pwaldron
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Macinerney of Blakemount, co. Clare and Australia in WWI

Post by pwaldron » Mon Nov 10, 2008 1:27 am

Margaret Mary (Madge) Macinerney, daughter of John McInerney and Bridget O'Halloran McInerney, was born 16 Jun 1879 at Blakemount, in the townland of Knockatermon, co. Clare - see IGI at
http://www.familysearch.org/eng/Search/ ... 0291071762

Thanks to Paddy Casey for details of her baptism:

19-Jun-1879: Margaret Mary, daughter of John McInerny and Bridget
O'Halloran of Blakemount. Sponsors John O'Halloran and Delia McInerny.
Officiating: L.Browne, PP.

I knew no more about Madge (my second cousin, three times removed) until I stumbled upon the details of her WWI service at http://www.aif.adfa.edu.au:8080/showPerson?pid=183188 which provides links to 30 pages of service records at http://naa12.naa.gov.au/scripts/ItemDet ... &B=1961787

She signed her enlistment papers for the Australian Imperial Force as `Margaret Mary Macinerney', a spelling of her surname favoured by her more upwardly mobile relatives in Dublin and Texas. The surname is also variously spelled McInerny, McInerney, MacInerney and Macinerney in her military records.

As an example of what is freely available online from Australia for those who served in WWI, here is a summary of Madge's file.

Madge enlisted on 10 Dec 1916 and served 4 months in the Australian Army Nursing Service (A.A.N.S.) at Caulfield Hospital, Victoria.

Madge next enlisted in the A.A.M.C. Reinforcements at the age of 37 on 17 Apr 1917. She was a nurse and had served three years apprenticeship in the Co. Clare Infirmary in Ennis (she does not appear to be enumerated there, or at home in Blakemount, in the 1901 census). She was unmarried. She named her mother `Mrs. Macinerney, Blakemount House, Ennis, Co. Clare' as her next of kin, so her father may have died since the 1911 census. Her address was No. 4 A.G.H., Caulfield, Victoria, Australia. Her religion was R.C. She was assigned to the British India Service. She embarked on the S.S. Karoola at Melbourne on 25 Apr 1917 and sailed via South Africa, where she transshipped at Durban, South Africa, on board HMT 'Corinthic'. She left Durban on 21 May 1917 on HMT Caronia and went on to Bombay, where she disembarked on 12 Jun 1917. [See follow-up message below.] She was posted to the Victoria or Cumballa War Hospital in Bombay for duty on the date of disembarkation, but was invalided back to Australia after only 11 weeks, on 29 Aug 1917. It appears that she recovered without leaving India, for she was transferred to Station Hospital, Secunderabad, 11 Dec 1917 and to Station Hospital, Poona, 20 Sep 1918. She was appointed Temporary Sister whilst in India, Mesopotamia or on duty at sea, from 1 Oct 1918. In India in Dec 1918, she had an attack of malaria and began to suffer from `slight asthenia dental'. She sailed for home on 28 Feb 1919. On arrival at Melbourne on 23 Mar 1919 on board the 'City of Cairo', she was found to be still easily tired and recommended two weeks home treatment. The loss or decay of her teeth was found to have been aggravated by her military service. She was discharged at Melbourne on 1 Jun 1919. The National Archives of Australia also has copies of her application for assistance in 1919 and of an application for a business loan in 1921. [I have now paid for these to be digitised and they are available on the naa.gov.au website.]

The Manager of the Commonwealth Bank in Melbourne wrote to the military authorities on 13 Jan 1922 enquiring for the address of `Sister Madge M. MacInerney'.

She acknowledged receipt a British War Medal on 17 Feb 1925.

A copy of Madge's enlistment document is endorsed in red: `Legatee mentioned in will
Mrs A Flanagan
11 Blenheim St
Balaclava Vic'.
It is not clear whether this is a relative or just a landlady. [The new information below suggests the latter.] Madge appears to have lived with her for many years. Mrs Flanagan must have been widowed before 1914, since no other Flanagan appears at the same address with her in Australian Electoral Rolls. Madge's will was detached from the document and handed to officer in charge, base records, on 26 Apr 1917. Madge wrote on 20 Apr 1925 from 21 Westbury Street, East St. Kilda, Victoria, acknowledging return of her will and pointing out that she had not received a Victory Medal. Her service with the A.I.F. did not qualify her for this award.

Madge Macinerney appears in Australian Electoral Rolls 1901-1936 living at various different addresses in Victoria, including the two addresses noted above, with Annie Elizabeth Flanagan.

The grave location search at http://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/BCC:STANDARD::pc=PC_899 contains a garbled record of Madge's burial: "Macineruy Margaret Mary" was buried in grave number 50 in Section 65 of Portion 4 of the Monumental part of the cemetery.
Last edited by pwaldron on Mon Aug 23, 2010 12:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

pwaldron
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Re: Macinerney of Blakemount, co. Clare and Australia in WWI

Post by pwaldron » Wed Dec 10, 2008 5:22 pm

Information newly digitised at naa.gov.au:

On 13 Mar 1921, Madge send a handwritten letter, from 39 Raglan Street, East St. Kilda, directly to the Honorable A. S. Rodgers, Acting Minister for Repatriation, relative to her desire to obtain assistance in business, but including lots of fascinating background detail:

`Dear Mr Rodger's
I thought I would write to you. I am a returned sister of the A.I.F. While on Active Service, I contracted Malaria. I find I cannot do night duty & my nerves are also very bad. I of course get a small weekly pension but you know with having to board oneself - I have no home here. Another sister & myself want to start a small sweet shop. I am good at business and my friends all say they would do all they could for me. I am pretty well known in Melbourne & suburbs. We have been wondering if the Repatriation would advance us the money to get one or buy into one for us. Of course, I know that it was the rule of the Repatriation Department not to start anyone in business unless they had been in that sort of business before but I heard they were going to alter that. I am sure we would be no time until we could pay back the Department in full. I am entitled to some money from Ireland but it will be at least 6 to 12 months before I get it, so what am I to do in the meantime? We are wasting our time & I must say people who have positions to give are not very good to the returned Sisters. I do not want to loaf. Several of the sisters have given up nursing & gone into business but as a matter of fact many of the returned sisters found their positions gone when they returned from service. I was one of the four sisters on the Troop ship Caronia when she went on fire between Durban & East Africa. The black crew mutinied & the Tommies had to go down & all the bunkers were on fire. So bad was the fire that the Admiral of the Fleet, Adm. Charlton, & the engineer experts from the Navy had to be got by wireless & we had to anchor half a mile from Dares-salaam & flood the bunkers or the ship would have been blown to atoms. We had to tare [sic] our clothes up for dressings & the men were so burnt that you would not know whether they were black or white & we never had a death. We had 10,000 Tommies on board, the two generals, Van Daventer [?] & their staff's & 400 officers & you can just imagine what a ship on fire is & only for the bunker's were flooded I do not know what would have happened. I have letters from men in East Africa & they say what we did on that ship was some of the bravest work done by Sisters during the war. But we got no decorations. They said if we had been English Sisters the four of us would have got the R.R.C. [Royal Red Cross Medal] I hope you will not mind my writing. Senator De Largie & several of the members know me well. I got a good appointment at Darwin but could not take it owing to Malaria. Of course, owing to the condition of affairs in Ireland it is hard to get affairs fixed up & as my people are not Sinn Feiners they have a bad time.
Margaret M. Macinerney late Sister A.I.F.'

There is also a typed copy of this letter in her file in the National Archives of Australia.

Confirmation of the events on board the Caronia appears at http://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/a ... 4gnf5zr9o7

In May 1917, while Caronia was at sea (actually on voyage from India to the Cape [more likely from the Cape to India]) a series of fires occurred in the bunkers. The crew tried to cope, but after five days the Master was compelled to ask for help from the troops on board. A number volunteered to go into the bunkers, and they gave valuable help in extinguishing the flames. 18 N.C.O.'s and men and one Temp Lieut. were reported as deserving of special recognition of the very considerable risk incurred: frequent explosion occurred and a number of helpers were seriously injured. These 19 men together with 11 crew members were all awarded the silver Sea Gallantry Medal.

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