Desmond Sharp Bolster reads a first hand recollection of the famine in the parish of Kilshanagh which was written by George Bolster, Deputy Inspector General Royal Navy and first cousin of Desmond's grandfather.
The Victoria Cross instituted by Queen Victoria on the 29th Jan 1856 to recognise servicemen's brave acts regardless of rank. The football-size cascabels [knobs] from Canons captured in the Crimea were sawn off at the neck and melted down for VC production. When this actually happened is still open to debate. The priceless lump of metal, of which there remains enough for a further 85 crosses, is kept in a vault at the Royal Logistic Corps in Donnington, Shropshire. It can be removed only under guard.
In Memory of Lieutenant Colonel GEORGE ERIC DOBBS Signal Corps (A.D. Sigs.), Royal Engineers who died age 32 on 17 June 1917 Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. Son of Joseph and Mary Dobbs, of The Chalet, Temple Rd., Dublin. Native of Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny. Remembered with honour LIJSSENTHOEK MILITARY CEMETERY
Commemorated in perpetuity by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.