Thomas Guinane

Thomas Joseph Guinane (1896 - 1967) was a Sergeant in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers and holder of the Military Medal; it may also be that he was twice mentioned in dispatches but there is no formal evidence to corroborate this.
Thomas was born in Brownstown Co. Kildare and moved to Dublin at some time. His father John had joined the army in his youth. Thomas joined the Royal Dublin Fusilisers 1st Batt. on December 20th 1915, serving in France. Family legend has it that it was whilst taking a machine gun post that he was injured and for this he may have been awarded the military medal but there are no surviving formal records from the now disbanded regiment to support this. The award was gazetted in 1919 but may have been the result of action in 1918. The Royal Dublin Fusiliers were disbanded as a regiment in 1922 following the creation of the Irish Free State.
After leaving the army in 1919/1920 he settled in the English town of West Bromwich and on May 31st 1924 he married Lily Morris 1903 - 1981. They and had five children two of whom died in childhood (Tom Jr and Lily Jr). Their surviving children Anne, Mary and Shelia were brought up in West Bromwich. Shelia went on to give birth to three children including the Comic strip Artist Mike Collins.
During the Second World War he served as Sergeant Major in the Home Guard. His eldest daughter Anne Guinane 1925 - 1981 (later Carless) followed in the family tradition by joining the army and serving as an army driver during the war for leading military figures including Montgomery. Thomas died in February 1967. He is buried in the Walsall Road cemetery along with the unmarked graves of his children who died in childhood.

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