File:William Barry's Princess Mary brass gift box, Christmas 1914.jpg

English: John, Michael and William Barry were my great-uncles, my grandmother Mary Barry Whelan’s brothers. Their parents were John and Bridget Barry of Neamstown, Kilmore Quay, Wexford, Ireland. My great uncle, John Barry was born on 30 November 1888 and joined the Royal Dublin Fusiliers in January 1915. His service number was 17986. He was killed in action in the Balkans on 7 December 1915, aged 26. His name is inscribed on the Doiran memorial in Greece. My grandmother, Mary Barry Whelan kept a diary of all the events related to her brothers and kept their scrolls and photos on the wall of her hallway. They were the first things you saw when you went through the door. Michael Barry was born in June 1890 and joined the Welsh Regiment on 20 July 1916. He was killed in Cambrin in France on 23 July 1918 at 10:25 pm. Michael had arrived in France on Christmas Day 1916. He and some other Wexford men are remembered on a plaque in Maesteg church about five miles from Bridgend in Wales. William was born on 22 May 1896. He walked from Kilmore to Wexford town on 17 May 1917 to join the Royal Irish Regiment, service number 157749. He served in the Machine Gun Corps and was seriously wounded on 23 March 1918 in France. He was discharged in 1919 as no longer physically fit for war service. He was permanently disabled and bedridden and my grandmother looked after him and spent much of her time going up and down to him. He died in Nemestown about nine years late and is buried in Grange cemetery there. Unfortunately for the family the remaining brother Tommy died young also in 1926, so that was all the Barry sons deceased in the space of ten years. From 1911 to 1927, Bridget Barry, my great-grandmother lost her four sons, her husband and one daughter. Three girls remained and they married and lived to old age. My grandmother, Mary Barry always kept their memory alive. She married Myles Whelan who enlisted in the Royal Munster Fusiliers in 1916 and was discharged in 1918.