Charles Conyers

Lt-Col. Mather

/ Matthew K Barrett / Leave a comment

Lieutenant-Colonel J.D. Mather
1st Bn., Leinster Regiment (Royal Canadians)
Mather

I was just sitting down to breakfast (in the M de Prémesques farm) when the greatest burst of fire I have every heard broke out … C and D companies (Leinster Regt) had been driven out of their trenches by the enemy’s attack.

(J.D. Mather, diary, 20 October 1914 in 2nd Bn., Leinster Regiment War Diary)

Born in North Shields, Northumberland, England on 17 March 1872, John Dryden Mather had been commissioned with the Leinster Regiment in 1892 and served in the Boer War. Following sick leave for bronchitis in April 1915, Mather joined the 1st Leinsters on 26 June 1915. He took command after Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Conyers had been mortally wounded in action on 11 May. Following a relatively quiet summer after the heavy fighting of late 1914 and early 1915, the 1st Leinsters learned their division was to be redeployed from the Western Front. In November 1915, the 27th Division sailed from Marseilles “for an unknown destination.”

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Maj. Conyers

/ Matthew K Barrett / 3 Comments

Major Charles Conyers†
1st Bn., Leinster Regiment (Royal Canadians)
Conyers

6pm – Trench in firing line lost. Battalion ordered to counter attack. Left about 11pm. ‘C’ Coy gained the captured trench but were obliged to retire owing to enfilade machine gun fire being brought to bear on them. Major Conyers (commanding Bn) mortally wounded.

(1st Bn., Leinster Regiment War Diary, 11 May 1915)

Charles Conyers was born on 19 November 1867 at his family estate Castletown Conyers in Limerick, Ireland. He had been commissioned since 1889, served in the Boer War, and was a major with the Royal Irish Fusiliers on the out break of the Great War. He transferred to the 1st Battalion, Leinster Regiment to succeed Lieutenant-Colonel C.B. Prowse on 29 April 1915

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