It’s forty years since my mother lost the first of her siblings, Paddy and Ita, in quick succession – one expected and the other shocking in its timing. Ita (1924-1986) has a legacy of three living generations, and I imagine she would have been amazed and delighted by their lives and achievements. Paddy had no children and so I share some of his story here.
Paddy was born on Wolfe Tone St, Cork city. As an infant he lived briefly in Kerry and then again Cork and Thurles. Unlike his younger brothers, according to his sister Maura, Paddy was not much of a sportsman so there’s no newspaper trail about his sporting prowess.
As the oldest son of a WW1 veteran who’d lost his brother at the Somme, there might have been high expectations that he enlist for WW2. I have not been able to confirm Paddy’s service via records. This is partly due to the timed release of records and Paddy’s not uncommon name.
I believe Paddy was initially in the army. In the photo below Paddy is wearing a coat and hat that were certainly worn by the Royal Artillery, although I have been told the coat could also be RAF. Paddy is with a Victor Tarr. 1
A cousin believes that Paddy was involved in the Dunkirk landings. She also believes Paddy was injured and invalided out and after some pressure from his father he returned to service in the navy, using a false name. There is a document that supports at least part of this story. Paddy, under the initial M (presumably Michael) was discharged from service as a Stoker in October 1946. He’d been with ‘H.M.S. Pembroke’. This was a base at Chatham 1940-1960.
Paddy was demobbed in England and went on to live in London. He worked for the Ministry of Works as a furniture porter. He was a quiet man although in 1962, along with one of his brothers, he was involved in a fight outside a Pimlico pub and he was fined for assaulting a policeman.
Paddy married Mary Teresa Fogg (1919 – 1968) in August 1948. Molly was much admired by my mother’s generation.
Paddy was widowed in 1968 and died 18 years later.
If Paddy’s mystery lies in WW2, Molly’s mystery goes back to WW1.
No-one in the family was certain about Molly’s maiden name or where she was from, other than Ireland. Paddy’s marriage cert shows Molly’s father as Francis Fogg but I could find no birth for a Mary Teresa Fogg in Ireland. I did eventually find a marriage record for a Frank Fogg and Kathleen O’Keefe, in Wexford.
Frank Fogg was an Essex born soldier who served in WW1 with the Royal Munster Fusiliers. He was wounded and sent to the detachment in Wexford to convalesce. It was there he met Kathleen. They married May 28th 1917 just before Frank returned to the front. He was killed in action in France within three months of their marriage.
Almost two years after Frank’s death Molly was born in July 1919. She was not the only child born that month on George St, Wexford to not have a father named on the birth certificate. Kathleen kept baby Molly. I imagine the lack of a living husband would have not gone unnoticed in a town as small as Wexford, especially as Frank Fogg’s death had been reported in the newspaper in 1917. Kathleen must have been a determined and strong woman. She remarried three years later, to William Connolly, and had more children. In the 1926 census Molly was listed as William’s step daughter, with her mother’s maiden name – O’Keefe – as her surname and the note “father is dead.” I wonder if Molly ever knew of her origins.
Molly appears to have come to England post 1939, as she is not on the 1939 register. Her mother’s death certificate shows that Molly was with her mother, in Wexford, when Kathleen died in 1967.
Just over three months later Molly herself was dead. She was only 48 years old when she fell and suffered a fractured skull, accidental cerebral contusions and haemorrhage. An inquest was held but there was no newspaper coverage.
R.I.P Paddy and Molly.
- I have identified three Victor Tarrs who served in WW2. One can be ruled out for not looking like this man. One was from Nova Scotia. The other was a Somerset born Private in the Wiltshire Regiment Duke of Edinburgh’s infantry unit, killed in India on 7 June 1943. ↩︎
In Search of Thomas Davis 
Thank you, Frances. Great information. All the research you do is greatly appreciated.
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Paddy was in the merchant Navy . He spent time in Malaysia & Burma . He had a deep scar injury on his lower leg that wounded him out of the navy . He also walked a very infamous march in the far East where many died along the way . He marched with Kinger ( whitehead) Maher who was also from Thurles . He had his own office in the MOD & was in charge of furniture , decoration etc of buildings including no 10 . He always wore a full suit , waistcoat , jacket and heavy top coat & a trilby hat & came to our house for dinner every Sunday when we were kids .
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Paddy & Molly had a flat and a large lovely Labrador retriever. I answered the door to Paddy when he arrived at our house to tell us of Molly’s death . No phones , he was ashen . Many years later I drove Paddy from his flat in Brixton to all his appointments after he was diagnosed with cancer , he died in agony of stomach ( pancreatic ?) cancer while in King’s college hospital
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it was the Korean War and another Thurles man Con Gouldsborough , a cousin of Kinger Maher , was also with them . He never made it back
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