Fresh out of UCD medical school in 1915 where he qualified in surgery and midwifery, Eugene John McSwiney like most in the medical school before him at the time joined the British Army, presumably to get experience for his new qualification.
The Royal Army Medical Corps was probably considered one of the safer jobs in the army as you weren’t being bombarded, but a little over a year later on St.Steven’s Day 1916 (100 years ago today) the doctor from Rathroe House Eugene John had passed away from pneumonia at the Naval Barracks in Devonport (Plymouth), England, after which his body was returned to Ireland and buried in Millstreet Church Graveyard, one of only two from WWI to be buried there.
Born in Johnstown House, Kilmichael on December 7th 1890, an only child to Margaret McCarthy (of Dromagh) and Dr. Morgan McSwiney. Morgan was the local doctor and Justice of the Peace, but he died young of gallstones in 1906, and a few years later in the 1911 census, Margaret and Eugene John had moved and were living with Margaret’s Brother Michael and family in Ardnageeha Dispensary, near Cullen. Soon after that they moved to Rathroe House, Derrinagree with Margaret’s other brothers where Margaret lived until she passed away in 1936.
Eugene John entered Queens College Cork medical school in 1908, and did well, being awarded prizes in Botany and Chemistry in his first year. He moved to UCD Medical School in 1912, and finished his final exams in Midwifery and Surgery in 1915. From there he joined the the Royal Army Medical Corps, and little did he expect to be gone himself in just over a year. [read more …] “WWI: Capt Eugene John McSwiney (1890-1916)”
