Private Walter J. Keating

Walter Keating was born in Chester in 1881 and lived with his family in William Street, Newtown, Chester. He was one of eight children, the three eldest were born in County Mayo, Ireland, the remaining five were born in Chester.

Thomas Francis Heaney, Sgt. Royal Engineers 45644

Thomas Heaney was born on 29th October 1867 and baptised on the 10th November of the same year at St. Werburgh’s Roman Catholic Church, Chester.

The Beatty Family

As the Great War went on, several articles about the Beatty family found their way into local newspapers. The Beatty family came to be regarded as an example of the type of patriotism displayed by the ordinary people of Chester.

The Irish in Boughton

Between the middle of the 19th and early part of the 20th century, the Irish came to England in droves, mostly  because of the potato famine and lack of work in their homeland.

George Emmett Whelan

By the time the First World War began, life in Ireland had become a big struggle for the family, with his father having contracted tuberculosis, and his health rapidly declining.  Sadly, he died in 1919 aged only 48 years of age.

Stockport and the Easter Rising

Liam Parr was one of the two men from Stockport who travelled to Dublin in early 1916 to take part in the Easter Rising.