Letter from Fr Daniel Roche SJ to his Father Provincial, Thomas V Nolan SJ,, May 1916 Letters 1916-1923 Fr Daniel Roche

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Letter from Irish Jesuit Chaplain, Fr Daniel Roche SJ (1882-1961) to his Father Provincial, Thomas V Nolan SJ (1867-1941), May 1916. Roche writes an exciting account of surviving through a high explosive bombardment while conducting a burial detail. Roche also writes of his daily routine in the salient he and his men now occupy in the British front line.Daniel Roche was born in Castleisland, county Kerry in 1882 and died in 1961 in Limerick. He attended the Intermediate School in Tralee, county Kerry and the Jesuit boarding school, Clongowes Wood College. He entered the Jesuits in 1899 and was ordained in 1915. He volunteered as a military chaplain and was accepted in 1916.

 Irish Jesuit Archives IE IJA/CHP1/53/10, IE IJA/CHP1/53/10 https://letters1916.ie/item/694 English Fr Daniel Roche 1916-05 97th Field Ambulance, British Expeditionary Force, France Thomas V Nolan St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin Male World War I (1914-1918) Faith

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 97th ( C. P. ) Field Ambulance B. E. F. France Dear Fr Provincial P.C. When I was changed to this Ambulance I dropped you a card letting you know and giving the address and presume you got it. I am now attached to a Brigade tho' attached to the Field Ambulance for billets & rations. I find it a much more interesting and profitable job than my last. I have come on with and intend to stay with the advanced dressing station here till we go back for rest. I do not know if you have yet guessed where I am but it is not far from Greystones or Killiney. We occupy a pronounced salient in the line and it is a very hot spot. There is a very good Church here which is at our disposal — the civil population and Curehaving gone. I say 'our' because I have run against Fr Sandford of the English Province here and we run the district between us. We have daily mass for a small congregation of soldiers at 7.00 to 7.30 and Holy Devotions every night. Then during the week we try to do scattered units and on Sundays we climate and get in quite a large area. During the short time we have been up here it has been bourne in on me that, if attached to a Brigade like mine where the Catholics are in a proportion of about 1 in 10 and some battalions are in trenches and some 'at rest' (?) and these latter scattered in various labourparties, the two things necessary are good physical staying power and to know the ropes. The latter is not so easy. The work, then, is a mixture of drudgery and excitement and I have been treated to a little of both. I just escaped a bombardment by high explosion some days ago by a 100 yds and 30 secs. I had been up at the line to conduct a burial and was talking to an officer for a few minutes when the shells began to fall about 100 yds away. As it was getting dark and I had to make my way alone back along the trenches I set out for home. I met the Colonel on my way and he told me to wait awhile till the shelling was over and told me that my trench was the one which was being shelled! I had lost all idea of the direction in which I had come and had I not met the Colonel I should have been into it in my ignorance I have The trench was blown in in several places and large branches of trees brought down in it. I have been very near shell fine on various occasions but this was my narrowest escape. We were roused out of bed here a few nights ago by a night alarm and spent several hours in the cellar but only a few shells came into the place and these not very near. We are fully prepared for a bad time when anything big is on and expect this place to get a bit of a pounding. However we are in very good not to say excellent form despite it all. I am out now more than ten weeks and am commencing to look forward to my first leave. Whether I shall get it or not I cannot say but at any rate I expect to put in for it. If the push comes on I might have to wait rather too long. Hoping you will remember me in your Masses & prayers Yours sincerely in Xt D Roche SJ Fr Daniel Roche Letter from Fr Daniel Roche SJ to his Father Provincial, Thomas V Nolan SJ,, May 1916 St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin Letter from Fr Francis M Browne SJ to Fr Thomas V Nolan SJ, 21 August 1916Letter from Fr Henry Gill SJ to Father Provincial Thomas V Nolan SJ, 11 July 1916Letter from Fr Patrick Morris SJ to Father Provincial Thomas V Nolan SJ, 24 September 1916Letter from Fr Jerome O'Mahony SJ to his Father Provincial Thomas V Nolan SJ, 25 May 1916Letter from Fr Daniel Roche SJ to his Father Provincial, Thomas V Nolan SJ,, May 1916Letter from Fr Joseph Wrafter SJ to his Father Provincial Thomas V Nolan SJ, 6 July 1916Letter from Mr Henry A. Johnston SJ to Fr Thomas V Nolan SJ, 17 February 1916Letter from Fr Nicholas J Tomkin SJ to Fr Thomas V Nolan SJ, 7 June 1916Letter from Fr James Brennan SJ to Fr Thomas V Nolan SJ, 21 August 1916Letter from Fr Henry Gill SJ to Fr Thomas V Nolan SJ, 3 May 1916 97th Field Ambulance, British Expeditionary Force, France Letter from Fr Daniel Roche SJ to his Father Provincial, Thomas V Nolan SJ,, May 1916