Thomas Maguire

Rank:	Private
Street:
Townland:	Clonturk
Town/Village:	Stonepark
Civil Parish:	Templemichael
Catholic Parish:	Ballymacormack
Country:
Alternative Address:	2 Railway Cottages, Mullingar
Census 1901:	Resident at Cloonturk www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Longford/Longford_Rural/Clonturk/1555252/
Census 1911:	Residing with the Nolan family in Mullingar, as a boarder www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Westmeath/Mullingar_South_Urban/Railway_Cottages/886432/
Regiment/Unit:	Irish Guards, 1st Battalion & 2nd Battalion
Regiment Number:	10089
Date of Death:	30-03-1918
Cause:	Killed in action, (Spring Offensive 1918), the Somme, France
Memorial:	Douchy-Les-Ayette-British Cemetery, Ayette, Pas-de-Calais, France
Information:	Thomas was born in Curry, near Stonepark/Ballymacormack, on the 10 April 1882. As a teen, Michael worked as a postman in Co. Longford, but by 1911 he appears to have been working as a railway porter in Mullingar - during the war, the Irish Guards tended to recruit from public professions, such as postmen, railwaymen and RIC constables. Thomas likely entered the war at the end of 1915 or after 1916. He was serving with the 1st Irish Guards at the Somme during the German Spring Offenisve of 1918. Rudyard Kipling wrote: On the 30th March the attack rolled up again from the south where it had met no particular encouragement, and barraged the Battalion’s sector with heavies for a couple of hours; causing forty-two casualties among the men and wounding Lieutenants Stacpoole and Bagenal.
Parents Names:	Son of Michael Maguire and Mary (née Rawl) of Clonturk, Ballymacormack.
Notes:	*The Commonwealth War Graves Commission gives his age as 40, but he was likely younger than that.
Links:	Link to CWGC entry; inclusion in Rudyard Kipling's Irish Guards in the Great War Vol II;Civil Record of Birth;