Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V Nolan, 29 August 1918 Letters 1916-1923 Francis Shaw

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Letter from Francis M. Shaw (1881-1924) to the Father Provincial Thomas V Nolan (1867-1941) regarding the weather and the death of a child in the refugee camp. Francis, or Frank, Shaw SJ was born in Ennis, county Clare. He was ordained on 31 July 1916 at Milltown Park, Dublin. Fr Shaw joined the war early in 1916, working in the 16th General Field Hospital at Le Tréporte. In 1917, possibly due to his nationalistic views, Fr Shaw was dispatched to India, and later to Mesopotamia.Fr. Thomas V. Nolan was the Provincial of the Irish Province of the Society of Jesus (1912-1922) and was a member of the Distribution Committee which looked after the welfare and distribution of the Belgian refugees who arrived in Ireland as a consequence of the First World War.

 Irish Jesuit Archives IJA/CHPI/54/31-32, IJA/CHPI/54/31-32 https://letters1916.ie/item/1172 English Francis Shaw 1918-08-29 Mesopotamia Fr Thomas V Nolan Dublin, Ireland Male World War I (1914-1918) Faith

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 Mesopotamia 29 Aug. 1918 Dear Reverend Father Provincial, P.C. We are just beginning to 'haloo' in this part ofthe world, as there are signs of our being out ofthe wood. In other words, the hot season is fairly over. It was not nearly as bad as last year. The highest temperature was, I believe, just about 1180 in these parts; but that is taken in the shade at H.Q. which is the best shade tobehad. In tents it must have been up to 1260! Last year the highest official mark was 128 0. but it was 136 0 in many hospital and camp tents. One ofour chaplains, a Father Watson C.S.S.R. died this year of heat stroke, on the Euphrates. R.I.P. A few days ago I was called across the river for a burial. On arrival I found that a little Armenian child had died in the refugee camp of starvation and exposure. It was 2 years of age. Four Catholic Indians carried it tothe grave, and so it got a military funeral. The grave was a great big one, over seven feet long and about three wide, while the little body was hardly two feet long. We are very short of priests. Five or six are knocked out by illness, and others are at the end oftheir contract. We would require about a dozen or more extra to do the work really well. I have had Irish papers up toabout 12 June, from an Irish priest at Basra. They just get up tothe eve ofthe East Cavan election. I hope sometime tosee the comments on the result. An old 'Irish Catholic' has an account of FrOmahony's one day retreat in Egypt. Fsuperscript textMolony, our Senior Chaplain, is having a kind of mission in Baghdad next week. I hope to have one in my district when another priest comes for the other side ofthe river. At present the most I can aim at is to prevent the out-lying parishioners from becoming 'rustici'. I am hoping tohave a church built here. At present the hospital is being put up, and is nearly finished — the canteen, the open-air stage, the tennis-courts etc are either completed or under way, but churches are not tobe thought of until everything else is settled. I never saw such a lot, as they are in this country. There was a rumour current that the mails from England for us for the second half of June have gone tothe bottom. So if there were any suffragia at that time it would be well tosend a second notice. I got the notice for FrHassett and BrFlorian in Australia. I said another Mass for an R.a.m.c. orderly, who died suddenly here; but by giving your Reverence some ofmyown Masses and an extra Sunday Mass, I have been able tosay 18 for your intentions during August. I shall send Fr Farley a separate note, but it would be well to tell him in case the under-the-sea boats get a hit. 17 for July and 18 for August. I suppose the status did not disrupt the Province. All I want is togetburied away in some out ofthe world spot for the rest ofmylife. I see my Bishop's name prominently in the papers I have. I'm proud that he should be one of the most active in the cause. I recommend myself tothe prayers ofall. It will be better towritetome still c/o Archbishop's House, Bombay. My present unit is 65 British General Hospital. The hospital I began my chaplain career in, in France, no.3. B.General is now in this country. I spent a day or so as a patient in it last May on my way down to Basra. FrancisMShaw S.J. Francis Shaw Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, circa March 1916Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 11 May 1916Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 24 May 1916Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 14 June 1916Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 18 August 1916Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 23 September 1916Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, April 1917Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 14 May 1917Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 25 June 1917Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 18 July 1917Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 19 September 1917Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 24 November 1917Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, End of December 1917Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 13 January 1918Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 4 February 1918Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, End of February 1918Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 11 March 1918Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 3 April 1918Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 1 May 1918Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 22 May 1918Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 25 June 1918Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 1 August 1918Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, August 1918Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V Nolan, 29 August 1918Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 22 September 1918Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 30 October 1918Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 28 November 1918Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 28 December 1918Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 19 January 1919Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 23 January 1919Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 27 March 1919Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 23 April 1919Letter from Major General Francis Shaw to General John Maxwell, 30 May 1916 Mesopotamia Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, End of February 1918Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 11 March 1918Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 3 April 1918Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 1 May 1918Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 22 May 1918Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 25 June 1918Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 1 August 1918Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, August 1918Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V Nolan, 29 August 1918Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 30 October 1918Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 28 November 1918Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 28 December 1918Letter from Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 27 March 1918 Dublin, Ireland Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, End of December 1917Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, End of February 1918Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 3 April 1918Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 1 May 1918Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 22 May 1918Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 25 June 1918Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, August 1918Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V Nolan, 29 August 1918Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 30 October 1918Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 28 November 1918Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 28 December 1918Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 19 January 1919Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 23 January 1919Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 27 March 1919Letter from Fr Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 23 April 1919Letter from J. Stratton to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 8 April 1919Letter from Fr John Fitzgibbon to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, circa 1916Letter from Fr John Fitzgibbon to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, circa 1916Letter from Fr John Fitzgibbon to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 14 March 1916Letter from Fr John Fitzgibbon to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 23 September 1916Letter from Fr John Fitzgibbon to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 27 November 1916Letter from Fr John Fitzgibbon to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 12 June 1917Letter from Fr John Fitzgibbon to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, circa April 1918Letter from Fr John Fitzgibbon to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, circa 1918Letter from John Fitzgibbon to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, circa 1918Letter from Fr John Fitzgibbon to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, January 1918Letter from Fr John Fitzgibbon to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, circa 1918Letter from Fr John Fitzgibbon to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, circa 1918Letter from Fr John Fitzgibbon to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, circa 1918Letter from Dom Stephen Rawlinson to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 20 September 1918Letter from Dom Stephen Rawlinson to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 23 September 1918Letter from Fr William Keary to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 12 October 1918Letter from Fr William Keary to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 6 October 1918Letter from Patrick F. Quinlan to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 4 October 1918Letter from Patrick F. Quinlan to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 14 October 1918Letter from Patrick F. Quinlan to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 12 October 1918Cablegram from John Dillon to John P McGoorty, 20 May 1916Letter from Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 10 May 1919Letter from Francis M. Shaw to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 15 May 1919Letter from John Fitzgibbon to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, circa 1916Letter from John Fitzgibbon to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 10 April 1916Letter from John Fitzgibbon to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, circa 1916Letter from John Fitzgibbon to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 8 December 1917Letter from Fitzgibbon to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 27 December 1917Letter from P.F. Quinlan, 23 September 1918Letter from P.F. Quinlan to Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan, 30 September 1918Letters from Kathleen Durcan to Willie Daly, 19 March 1923