The Way We Were... 1954: Officially Buried and Still Alive!

Saturday, August 07, 1954

When Frank Graham stepped off the train this week to spend a holiday in his native Athlone, his thoughts turned to a soldier's grave in Cornamagh Cemetery and the remarkable circumstances that linked him in a drama of mistaken identity 37 years ago.

For Frank, soldier veteran of two wars, now living in England, was officially-buried, with full military honours, in that cemetery towards the end of the first World War and didn't know a word about it until January, 1919, when he arrived home from England and scared the wits out of his relatives and friends as the man back from the dead.

The story of the great mistake began when a German torpedo sent the Steamer, ''Leinster," to the bottom of the Irish Sea, in the closing stages of the first World War, and with her some British soldiers to their death. Out from the War Office came the usual official notification to the relatives of the dead and, one went to the home of Frank Graham's mother, in Athlone, saying that her son's body had been recovered from the sea and requesting her wishes for the disposal of the body. Mrs. Graham replied that she wanted her son buried beside his-soldier father, in Athlone.

MILITARY FUNERAL

Home to Athlone came the coffin bearing what purported to be the remains of Private Frank Graham. It was met at the railway station by relatives and friends and was buried with military honours in Cornamagh cemetery. And so off the official records went the name of Frank Graham, as an active soldier of the British army, whilst at the same time Pte. Graham of the Royal Irish Regiment was stationed with his unit on Salisbury Plains, completely oblivious of the fact that his requiem had been sung in his native town. The next stage in the drama opens in January, 1919, when the very much alive Frank Graham, arrived in his native town and created something of a sensation. He was greatly amused and surprised to learn that he was officially dead and buried in Cornamagh, and jokingly inquired if he had a good funeral. When he arrived at his own home his mother fainted.

ESCORT FOR IRELAND

Over a pint in an Athlone publichouse this week, 54-year-old, Frank Graham explained to me how the mistake occurred, writes our representative. Back from France, he was stationed with his unit in Salisbury, when an escort was detailed to go to Ireland to bring back a deserter. On that escort was a close friend of his, Private Hickman, a native of Tralee. As his uniform was in a rather tattered condition, he asked Pte. Graham for the loan of his. He gave him his tunic, which contained his identity number as well as letters from home, and so when the body of the ill-fated Pte. Hickman was taken from the sea after the sinking of the "Leinster," it was identified as Pte. Graham, and sent to Athlone for burial.

Frank told me that some years later he rectified the mistake in a sworn statement to the War Office to enable Pte. Hickman's mother to obtain a pension.

YEARS OF ADVENTURE

Into his 54c years, Frank Graham has packed plenty of adventure. At the age of 15 he was a soldier in France, first with the Connaught Rangers and then with the Royal Irish Regiment, and served throughout the first World War. Back in the Athlone Barracks in 1922, he opened the gates to allow in the first Free-State troops. He then joined the Free State Army and held the rank of Company Adjutant and took part in engagements in the Civil War in Coolooney and Dooneyrock. He re-joined the British Army in 1940, fought in Dunkirk and was invalided out of the army in 1943. To-day he is a charge-hand in an iron foundry in Kent.

A prominent boxer in his earlier days, he promoted many clubs in Athlone and also trained several teams in the town, including the one that won the Free State Junior Cup.