A Great War 1914-15 trio and Memorial Plaque to Second Lieutenant Francis William Lynch, 4th Battalion, attached 1st Battalion, Connaught Rangers, who was killed in action on 26 April 1915 during the Second Battle of Ypres.
Four: 1914-15 Star (2/LIEUT. F. W. LYNCH, CONN. RANG.); British War and Victory Medals (2.LIEUT. F. W. LYNCH); Bronze Memorial Plaque (FRANCIS WILLIAM LYNCH), the first three professionally mounted for display in a Spink made fitted, velvet lined, glazed free standing display case.
Condition: Extremely Fine.
Francis William Lynch was born in St. Mary’s Lodge, Simmonscourt Road in Ballsbridge, Dublin, on 6th October, 1895. This house was rented from the McCann family, and one of them, Sister Mary Magdalen McCann, later became Mistress of Novices with the Order of Poor Clare nuns in Carlow. Her father gave St. Mary’s Lodge to the Order and, in 1906, the nuns moved in, naming it St. Damian’s Monastery, where the Order still resides.
He was the third of five sons of Henry Charles Lynch, a barrister in the Land Commission, and Alice Mary Lynch, née Vaughan. He was educated at Belvedere College in Dublin and the Oratory School in Birmingham, and entered Trinity College, Dublin as a student in 1913. When war broke out, he was commissioned in the 4th Battalion, the Connaught Rangers (a training battalion); he was transferred to the 1st Battalion in March, 1915, joining them near Ypres
The Second Battle of Ypres began on 25th May, 1915. On 26th April, the 1st Connaught Rangers were sent to the north of the town, to attack the Pilckem Ridge. A gas attack by the Germans broke up the advance of flanking units, and the Rangers were pinned down, north of La Brique, by machine-gun fire. Francis William Lynch was killed in this attack, at the point marked: ‘XX Furthest advance’ on the map. He was buried at the place marked with an arrow in La Brique, a mile north of the Menin Gate in Ypres.
He was 19 and is interred in La Brique Military cemetery No.2, Belgium. Lynch is additionally commemorated on an oval brass plaque which is held in the Connaught Rangers museum which features the Lycnch coat of arms with text:
IN MEMORY OF
FRANCIS WILLIAM LYNCH
2nd LIEUTENANT CONNAUGHT RANGERS
WHO WAS BORN IN THE HOUSE
NOW FORMING PART OF THE MONASTERY
ON 6th OCTOBER 1895, AND WAS KILLED
IN ACTION NEAR YPRES IN FLANDERS
ON 26th APRIL 1915.
REQUIESCAT IN PEACE.
“Greater love than this no man hath that a man lay down his life for his friends”
