John Condon of Waterford, "youngest battle casualty"

Posted by TheYank at 9/1/2009 7:02 AM EDT

As I mentioned last week I returned to Flanders because I didn't feel like I'd seen all I needed to see there. Following my last visit I became fascinated by World War I and the Irish role in it. I wanted to return to see some of the places and the graves of those I'd been reading about.

On my list was the grave of John Condon from Waterford. I came across his name in a book about the Irish in the Great War. Condon is listed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission as the "[y]oungest known battle casualty of the war." His headstone says he was 14 when he was killed on May 24, 1915. Condon's grave is thought to be the most visited among the hundreds of thousands of soldiers' graves from the Great War.

Having read that about Condon, I thought I should pay a visit myself. When I arrived at the right cemetery - there are hundreds around Ypres - I realized I didn't have the grave reference. Uh oh, I thought. I didn't have to worry, however, because while walking through the cemetery Condon's grave almost shouted out to me what with the Irish flag and the little wooden crosses left by those who had visited recently.


As I was standing in front of this one grave among the thousand or so graves I couldn't help wondering how any 14-year-old managed to convince some (too willing?) recruiter that he was 18.



Since I've come home I've learned that Condon may have done no such thing. First, I went looking for the Condons' census form from the 1911 census. That's when doubt first entered my head. I couldn't find any family with a John of the right age to be Private Condon. So a short Google search turned up this, from the local Waterford newspaper in 2007.
According to Michael O’Connor, Director of Waterford Heritage Services, John Condon was actually born in 1896 and was 19 when he died, not 14. He hadn't fooled anyone, but was actually the same age as so many of those who died in Flanders between 1914 and 1918. And Michael O'Connor says that the Condons' census form from 1911 lists John as a 15-year-old "General Labourer."

A little additional digging and it turns out that John Condon may not be buried in that grave at all. This site claims that the remains of a different missing soldier, 35-year-old Patrick Fitzsimmons from Belfast, were misidentified as Condon's back in 1923.

Uggh. It was all so much simpler when I was just going to visit the grave of the youngest soldier killed in the war.

{Maybe not as interesting as being the youngest battle casualty, but the Condons' 1911 census form shows that John's mother, Catherine, is listed as 40 years old and married 26 years. They were certainly different times.}