Unknown Wesh Regt Soldier with no "3349420"
A man was found dead near Dundrum on 4 Feb 1921. The man appears to be 3349420 of 2nd Welsh Regiment from mark on his clothing. Patrick J Brennan (1st Lieutenant Dundrum A Coy) in his statement to the BMH (1173) mentions in his Witness Statement (p15) that '" An unknown man found shot dead near Lamb Doyles, Ballaly, local IRA have no information as to how this man met his death or which organisation was responsible'. (Brennan dates the death of his unknown man as 4 Feb 1921)
It should be simple to identify the man from his service number. I tried the Welsh Regt Museum. I had a reply from Royal Welsh Museum. I have been able to ascertain that the number 3349420 was not allocated to a soldier of the WELCH Regiment. I appreciate that the clothing he was wearing was indeed military but if he was from 2 WELCH then there would have been a record of him being listed as “missing in action” or “AWOL” but I can find no such record of any WELSH Regiment soldier missing in 1921. There is a possibility that he could have been ROYAL WELCH FUSILIERS but I cannot verify that
My feeling is that he was in 2nd Welch Regiment, there is not much room for error with that, but that the service number could have been, not 3349420 but was in fact 3949420, which would have put him in Welch Regt. There appears to be no easy way of getting his name. However the inquest , see below went down this road, and that man was a Private Briggs, recently discharged. A soldier from the regiment saw the body and said it was not Briggs
The 2nd Battalion arrived at North Wall in Dublin on the 21st and 22nd June 1920.' A' and 'B' companies, Signallers, Band and Regimental transport went to Richmond Barracks and the rest of the Battalion went to Kilmainham Jail. The Battalion was placed in the 25th Provisional Brigade which was responsible for the northern part of Dublin. They left the city on 14th December 1922.
This man was 3949430 in Welch Regiment and is anothr possibility given the press reports say "3349420 in Welsh Regiment"
The British Court of Inquiry did not pursue the question of the man's identity
CO 904/189/2
It is also possible that he was in HLI with that number, and moved to Welsh - however the CWGC records record 3 HLI deaths, but use old short service nos