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The
son of an evicted tenant-farmer, Ledwidge was born in
Slane, County Meath, Ireland. After leaving school at
twelve, he worked as a miner and labourer while becoming
an active trades unionist, local councillor and Secretary
of the Slane Corps of the Irish Volunteers, and, from
his teens, a poet. In 1912 Ledwidge sent a copybook
of early poetry to the writer, Lord Dunsany, who became
a friend and helped him in various ways, including arranging
for the publication of his poetry.
Ledwidge,
once a great supporter of Home Rule, joined the Royal
Inniskilling Fusiliers in October 1914, noting that
the British Army was defending against 'an enemy common
to our civilisation.' He fought at Gallipoli, then in
Salonika in late 1915, from where he was invalided out
to Egypt and then to the UK. On sick leave he heard
of the Easter Rising in Dublin in April 1916, and the
subsequent executions by men wearing the uniform he
now wore. This upset and grieved him greatly. He was
sent to the Western Front a year later and was at work
on a road when a stray shell killed him on 31 July at
the start of the Third Battle of Ypres.
FirstWorldWar.com
- Francis Ledwidge
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