My Irish Grandparents and their relatives

This is the story of my Irish grandparents and the Great War - a story of extensive involvement and fascinating connections. My grandmother, Ada Marie Flynn (1893-1981), of Lower Leeson Street, Dublin, Ireland and Greenore, Co Louth, served as a munitions worker during the war, as attested to by her “On War Service” triangular badge. Her brother, Oweson Flynn (born 1896), served as an officer in the 5th Bn., The Prince of Wales’s Leinster Regiment. Ada’s sister, Vi (born 1897), married Charles Joseph Mackay, an officer in the 5th Bn., The Prince of Wales’s Leinster Regiment. During the war he transferred to the RFC (Royal Flying Corps). He was awarded the Military Cross, Distinguished Flying Cross and Croix de Guerre. In addition to her own munitions work, Ada corresponded with an Irishman she barely knew, a prisoner of war in Germany. Ada's sister Sheila married John Donal Carroll, MC (1917) Captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps and later Colonel in the Irish Free State Army Medical Service (1921-1925). He died in 1928 aged 38. My grandfather, Captain James Cecil Joseph Corballis (1891-1947), came from the Corballis family of Co Meath. He was the eldest son of Captain James Frederick Joseph Corballis of Ratoath Manor, Ratoath, Co Meath, himself a veteran of the Boer War who became a recruiting officer for the British Army during the War. James was affectionately known as ‘Tommy’, and became an officer in the 5th Bn., The Prince of Wales’s Leinster Regiment. He served in France. ‘Tommy’ and Ada married in January 1918. Tommy’s brother, Richard Arthur (1893-1921) became an officer in the 3rd Bn. The Dorsetshire Regiment. He was severely wounded on 25th April 1915 at Hill 60. He died of his wounds in Penzance in March 1921. Another of Tommy's brothers, Basil Joseph (1896-1966), became an officer in the Somerset Light Infantry. While seconded to the MGC (Machine Gun Corps) he was awarded the Military Cross on the first day of the battle of the Somme, 1st July 1916. Tommy’s sister, Barbara Marie (1892-1967) served with the VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) in England. She married Brigadier William Moxhay Sutton, DSO MC. Tommy’s aunt (sister of the afore-mentioned Captain James Frederick Joseph Corballis), May (Emily Mary) (1873-1940), joined the nursing Order of Saint Vincent de Paul as a Sister of Charity. The name she took was Soeur Marguerite. At the outbreak of the Great War she was attached to a hospital in Monaco. She was sent to run the frontline Hospital of Saint Louis in Roubaix, occupied France, to nurse wounded French, English and German soldiers. Having been arrested by the Germans allegedly for spying, she was imprisoned in Rastatt, Germany. She wrote to the Kaiser to demand her release. Her plea was successful and she returned to nursing for the remainder of the War, mainly at Souilly. She was awarded the Croix de Guerre, the SBM Red Cross medal and finally, in 1927, the Legion d’Honneur in Strasbourg in which City a street was named in her honour. Leeds University (Liddle Collection) as well as the family possess archive material and a diary relating to this remarkable person.