Lieutenant-Colonel E.J. Jameson†

&
Lieutenant-Colonel John McDonnell†

5th Bn., Leinster Regiment (Royal Canadians)

He was not the showy or popularity-seeking kind, but always pursued the even tenor of his path to duty. Reserved, rather taciturn, a somewhat lonely figure, he yet inspired confidence and esteem. Outwardly he appeared a man of care and silent sorrow, which rather belied his age and vigour. He knew his work, had confidence in himself and inspired it in others. Fearless and impartial, he never spared a subordinate, from a private upwards. But he never spared himself.

(Tribute to Lt-Col. Jameson in Whitton, The History of the Prince of Wales’s Leinster Regiment, vol. 2, 393)

Both majors who succeeded Lieutenant-Colonel E.F. Farrell in command of the 5th Battalion, Leinster Regiment would each later lead a battalion in the field before being killed in action. Born on 11 June 1875 in Dublin, Edmond James Jameson died of wounds on 27 March 1917 while in command 1/4th Essex Regiment during the First Battle of Gaza. Born on 2 November 1878 in Dublin, John McDonnell died with the 1st Inniskilling Fusiliers at Ypres on 29 September 1918.

Both had joined the Leinster Regiment as young men and had served in the Boer War. Farrell, who had commanded the 5th (Royal Meath) Battalion for two years, fell ill with pneumonia in August 1914. Jameson assumed command for the first few months of the war while the reserve battalion trained and provided reinforcements from Ireland. By January 1915, Farrell had recovered and Jameson went on active service in the Mediterranean theatre. He served at Gallipoli and received the Distinguished Service Order. In December 1916, he arrived to Egypt in command of the 1/4th Battalion, Essex Regiment.

He was fatally wounded during the First Battle of Gaza on 26 March 1917, leading the charge against the Turks at Mansura Ridge. Eight other officers were killed and Jameson died at a casualty clearing station the next day. The CO of the 1/5th Essex recalled, “Everyone who had seen him in the action testified to his sublime courage.” In a tribute to his fallen commander, a subordinate wrote of Jameson:

The first bullet brought him down. He then picked up a rifle and added his contribution to the sum of fire, but stopped a second one. Coming back from the Turkish trenches at dusk I found him, but he was beyond all aid. I gave him a drink of water, and he thanked me meekly. There was the same dauntless flash in his eyes that he had at the beginning as if a volcano of heroism had burned beneath the placid surface.

Back at Curragh Camp, Ireland, Farrell had stepped aside due to ill health in November 1916 and Major John McDonnell assumed command of the 5th Leinsters. In May 1918, the 4th and 5th battalions were folded into the 3rd (Special Service) Battalion. With this demobilization, McDonnell was posted to the Western Front, in command of 1st Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in August 1918.

During what would be brief service in France, he frequently wrote to his wife Senta in Drogheda, County Meath. “I am sorry you are worrying about not hearing from me,” he wrote after a rare gap in their correspondence, “but in the front line it is impossible to write and we went ‘over the top’ and were fighting in the open for 2 days and 2 nights choking the Boche.” McDonnell was killed in action at Ypres shortly thereafter on 28 September.