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A blog devoted to Kilkenny Graveyards and Burial Places, only occasionally straying beyond the county boundaries. All the pictures and information have been collected by Mary Casteleyn, Irish genealogist and Bernie Kirwan, a genealogist deeply immersed in the history and genealogy of those who once lived in county Kilkenny.
Pat Kirwan john wase my uncil and I could not be more proud of him and sad that I never got to meat him
ReplyDeleteHello Pat
ReplyDeleteLovely to hear from you and that you found your way to our Blog
Yes your Uncle Sgt.John Kirwan was a great young man to be proud of. We met your sister Annie and family at her home last Saturday. She welcomed us with homemade apple pie, tea and buns. We called to tell her Johns name will now be added to the list of names being added to the Kilkenny War Memorial.
We were also able to tell your family that Eric Whittle son of Bert Whittle will arrive in Kilkenny at the end of this month to visit your family with his wife from Australia. They will be re-tracing his Dads footsteps of 1938 when Bert and John came together to Ireland to attend what was probably your fathers Wedding.
Annie is arranging a family get together while Eric and his wife are here, and there will be lots of cups of tea and apple pie.
Eric and his wife will travel later to France to visit Le Chesne Communal Cemetery and Grave number 2. (of 7 Casualties) his fellow crew members John Anthony Kirwan Sergeant R.A.F.
Pat looking forward to meeting you at this gathering.
An ultimately wonderful if sad story.
ReplyDeleteHi there. I am 99% sure that the photo is actually of my Grandfather, John Kerwin, and you have done of the details correct!
ReplyDeleteKind Regards, Jean Kerwin
DeleteMy email address is jean_kerwin@hotmail.com - if Bert or his family would like to contact me.
Sorry, none^^^ of the details correct.
DeleteLike unless he has an identical twin with the same name… this is so weird!!
DeleteMy Grandfather was a War photographer with the RAF and Irish… I’m pretty sure it’s him in the photo… I have more photos…
DeleteThe lead photograph of this article is without a doubt a photo of my father John Kerwin (he always spelled it this way since he changed it from O'Kerwin about 1954 I believe) His father was Edward O'Kerwin of Dublin, but also I believe born in London for some reason. Edward served in the Indian army and was after that a Whitehall messenger. He died while my father was quite young and my father and his older brother were then sent to a Catholic orphanage where they were very badly treated.
ReplyDeleteMy father did train as a photographer/rear gunner and survived many bombing missions over Germany. He was actually born in London, but of Irish parents and raised mostly in Dublin.
He was in Farnborough and Aldershot air bases during and after ww2. He immigrated to NZ in about 1958 and died in 1966 of a heart attack in Auckland New-Zealand and is buried there in a military grave section, he was still serving in the NZ air force at the time of his death.
He was stationed in many places during ww2 and I saw photos he had taken in India, Burma and the middle east as he became a public relations photographer once his rear gunner days were over, he believed he was the only one of his intake of rear gunner/photographers to survive the war.
Kirwan is the most common way to spell this name and there will be a number of Johns spelled this way, many from Ireland.
Thanks for the clarity Dad (John Kerwin, NZ)… Edward was actually born a Kerwin in Ireland, I got a copy of his birth certificate from your cousin Mike. He changed the name to O’Kerwin (upon his third marriage I believe), but then your father changed it back to Kerwin after separation from his first wife. Yet John Kerwin in this photograph was actually born Sean!
Delete-Jean Kerwin
PS. The John Kerwin from the photograph has four living children, two in England, one in New Zealand, and one in Sydney Australia, all of who have their own children, and some grandchildren also.
Also Helen Kerwin adds:
DeleteI have been told by the Kerwin's in London... Edward worked at the war office in London after India then 'found' religion and he and his wife ran a catholic charity store, got into financial probs, I think?, then he took the family back to Dublin to a little house on the river Liffey in Dublin city...Heather & I went there with our cousin Myra Brannigan. They ended up on poverty & Edward died, the mother not long after... Bride & Michael had recently married & took in young Sean (John in this photo) until he headed off to London at about 15 or 16 to start with the RAF.