Soldier Record

Jeremiah Aherne was attested as a sapper on 3 January 1910 in the trade of carpenter in the Royal Engineers. He served at home from 1910 to 1914, then in Bermuda from January to October 1914 and finally in France in 17 Field Company and then the 32nd Railway Operating Company from 20 November 1914 until July 1918 when he returned home as he had applied and been recommended for a commission. His Regimental Service No was 19730. By the end of the War he was an acting Corporal.

Having started his Officer training he was told that commissions were being suspended because the War was over. All cadets were offered the choice of returning to their units or continuing training, but they would be discharged immediately on commissioning and would not receive any uniform allowance or pay as an Officer. Jeremiah chose the latter option and was appointed to a temporary commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Munster Fusiliers on 5 March 1919 and immediately discharged to the Reserve.

At the outbreak of WWII he returned to military service. In 1943 he was listed on the Regular Army Reserve of Officers in the Auxiliary Pioneer Corps as a Class II 2nd Lieutenant 18 January 1940 (War Substantive Captain 22 July 1941). He subsequently attained the rank of Major. He used to tell his family that one memory of the Great War that he couldn't purge was that of continuing to talk to a friend in the trenches, initially unaware that his friend's head had been shattered by an exploding shell.

Jeremiah returned to civilian life after the War, working in various engineering jobs, one of which was on the Shannon Hydro-Electricification Scheme at Ard Na Chrusha in the 1930's. He died at the Meath Hospital in Dublin, Ireland on the 26th of May 1973 and is buried in Dean's Grange Cemetery in South County Dublin.