Name
John Valentine McCarthy
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
10/04/1917
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
781459
Canadian Infantry
50th Bn
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
VIMY MEMORIAL
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
St Edmund’s College Memorial, Standon
Biography
The following text was transcribed from the The Edmundian (1814-1819) – The contemporary magazine of St Edmund’s College:
John Valentine McCarthy, was the second son of Justin McCarthy, Esq., J.P., of Inch House, Anniscaul, Co. Kerry. After spending some years at St. Brendan's, Killarney, be came to St. Edmunds, in October, 1911, and entered Syntax as a Church Student.
During his stay of two years he became a great favourite with his fellow-students, and will be long remembered among them owing to his never-failing good nature and cheerful disposition.
Feeling that he had no vocation to the priesthood, he left the College in the Summer of 1913, and entered an office in London. A little later he went to Canada, and had hardly settled down there when the war broke out.
He made two attempts to join the army and on both occasions he was rejected as unfit for active service. But apparently he thought otherwise, and eventually succeeded in enlisting as a private in a Canadian Regiment, " Moose Jaw's Own."
He finished his training in England during the autumn of last year and left for the front shortly before Christmas. But alas his military career was to prove a short one, he took part in the great advance in front of Arras on Easter Monday, and fell on the following day.
We offer our deepest sympathy to his parents on this, the second loss which they have suffered during the present war.
Acknowledgments
Jonty Wild, Di Vanderson, The Edmundian (1814-1819) – The contemporary magazine of St Edmund’s College
