Photograph of George Walsh

"This photo I’m holding was taken in 1907 at a ball in the Mansion House for children of the city of Dublin. The child pictured is my Uncle George Walsh. He was born in 1900 in Ballsbridge Terrace, and reared in Spencer Street, North Strand. When he was only 15, George went against his family’s wishes and joined the Great War, going to Liverpool we think to sign up. His father followed him over and brought him home on the grounds that he was only 15 and too young to enlist. About a year after this, however, he went again and joined the army, this time changing his name to John Kennedy and lying about his age so that he wouldn’t be refused. He survived the war and lived out the remainder of his life in the UK until 1980 under the name John Kennedy. He lived a modest life working as a gardener and when I was about nine or ten, my mother took me over to Brighton where he lived to meet him. I really liked him as a person and I really like this photograph, so now it hangs on the wall in my house where it serves as a wonderful link to my family’s history."