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Swift · 11-09-2017, 09:15 PM

I'm not much of a military guy, but I've been meaning to share this story here for a number of years.

I spent the first 6 months of my life living in a small cottage at a place called Ballymun Cross in Dublin, Ireland. It was originally a rural area located at a crossroads (hence the name) and consisted of about 5 or 6 cottages, a church, schoolhouse and a small shop attached to one of the cottages. My mother grew up in the cottage, as did her mother and her grandmother before her. The cottages and the land were bought by the city in the mid 90s and what was once a quiet country road is now a multi laned busy road leading from the city centre to the airport. A Hilton hotel stands on one of the corners and any semblance of the crossroads past life is long gone.

I randomly moved to Calgary in my mid 20s. I met a girl online and she could've been from anywhere in the world, but she was from here so I ended up here (no longer with her, but I ended up meeting my wife here) The only thing I knew about the place was that the Harts were from here, and nothing else. Anyway, a few years ago, my mother brought over a 40 page booklet about the 20th century history of Ballymun Cross written by a local woman as she thought I'd be interested in it. Flicking through it, I came across a mention of a Thomas Lawless who grew up in one of the cottages, and then later moved to Calgary in 1909! This blew me away. What were the chances of two people from this small clump of cottages randomly ending up moving across the other side of the world to the same city?

I was intrigued and ended up googling for more information on the guy. He lived at 8th Street W (Calgary wasn't separated into quadrants at this time) and enlisted in the 49th Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force in 1915. Unfortunately he died at Avion, near Vimy Ridge two years later. His body was never found and so was missing, presumed dead.

In 2003, two bodies were found by construction workers during a road construction project. Their battalion was identified based on insignia found on their uniforms and they were shipped to Canada for further identification. The first body was identified four years later as Pte. Herbert Peterson of Berry Creek, Alberta, but it took a further four years to finally identify the second body as Pte. Thomas Lawless. He was given a military burial at La Chaudiere Military Cemetery.

http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/rememb...detail/1570377

http://ww1.canada.com/faces-of-war/p...rs-after-death

Like I said, I'm not a military guy. I grew up in a country which doesn't venerate its military, and so the concept of Remembrance Day is (literally) foreign to me, but I give Tommy Lawless a thought each year at this time.

11-09-2017, 09:15 PM	#7
Swift Not Taylor Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Calgary SW Exp:	I'm not much of a military guy, but I've been meaning to share this story here for a number of years. I spent the first 6 months of my life living in a small cottage at a place called Ballymun Cross in Dublin, Ireland. It was originally a rural area located at a crossroads (hence the name) and consisted of about 5 or 6 cottages, a church, schoolhouse and a small shop attached to one of the cottages. My mother grew up in the cottage, as did her mother and her grandmother before her. The cottages and the land were bought by the city in the mid 90s and what was once a quiet country road is now a multi laned busy road leading from the city centre to the airport. A Hilton hotel stands on one of the corners and any semblance of the crossroads past life is long gone. I randomly moved to Calgary in my mid 20s. I met a girl online and she could've been from anywhere in the world, but she was from here so I ended up here (no longer with her, but I ended up meeting my wife here) The only thing I knew about the place was that the Harts were from here, and nothing else. Anyway, a few years ago, my mother brought over a 40 page booklet about the 20th century history of Ballymun Cross written by a local woman as she thought I'd be interested in it. Flicking through it, I came across a mention of a Thomas Lawless who grew up in one of the cottages, and then later moved to Calgary in 1909! This blew me away. What were the chances of two people from this small clump of cottages randomly ending up moving across the other side of the world to the same city? I was intrigued and ended up googling for more information on the guy. He lived at 8th Street W (Calgary wasn't separated into quadrants at this time) and enlisted in the 49th Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force in 1915. Unfortunately he died at Avion, near Vimy Ridge two years later. His body was never found and so was missing, presumed dead. In 2003, two bodies were found by construction workers during a road construction project. Their battalion was identified based on insignia found on their uniforms and they were shipped to Canada for further identification. The first body was identified four years later as Pte. Herbert Peterson of Berry Creek, Alberta, but it took a further four years to finally identify the second body as Pte. Thomas Lawless. He was given a military burial at La Chaudiere Military Cemetery. http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/rememb...detail/1570377 http://ww1.canada.com/faces-of-war/p...rs-after-death Like I said, I'm not a military guy. I grew up in a country which doesn't venerate its military, and so the concept of Remembrance Day is (literally) foreign to me, but I give Tommy Lawless a thought each year at this time.