Tyne Cot Memorial
Tyne Cot Memorial: Pauline Priano
Tess McTiernan has provided the following:
Patrick Gaffney, one of eight children, was born in 1896 to Edward and Margaret Gaffney (née Doolan). The 1911 census shows the family living at the Smiths Arms, Catchgate. After the death of his father in 1913 the family moved to North Road, Catchgate.
At the age of 19 years 2 months, Patrick, a miner, enlisted at Consett on 8 September 1914 and joined the 13th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry. One of over 4,000 recruits, Patrick left Newcastle for Bullswater Camp, near Pirbright in Surrey.
Bullswater was a tented camp and the battalion was accommodated in long lines of bell tents, with larger marquees providing cover for the cookhouse, dining tent and quartermaster stores, company and battalion headquarters. Owing to a lack of uniforms and equipment, training was limited to route marching, squad drill, physical training, running and entrenching. By late November, rain had made the Bullswater Camp unusable and the 12th and 13th Battalions moved to Malplaquet Barracks in Aldershot, with later moves to Ashford in Kent, and finally to Bramshott in Hampshire. In the middle of February 1915 the long-awaited khaki uniforms arrived, replacing blue serge uniforms, and were quickly issued to all ranks.
On 26 August 1915, 13th Battalion, as part of the 68th Brigade of the 23rd Division, landed in France and within days was sent to the trenches. In late June 1916, the 23rd Division was moved south to the Somme and 13th Bn., DLI entered the fighting south of La Boisselle and was engaged in further battles of the Somme. In 1917 the battalion fought in the Battle of Messines, the Battles of the Menin Road, Polygon Wood and the First and Second Battles of Passchendaele. According to his Field Service Record Patrick was killed in action on 10 October 1917, he has no known grave and is listed on the Tyne Cot Memorial at Passchendaele. He was awarded the 14-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.
Remembered with Honour
Patrick Gaffney is remembered in Annfield Plain on A38.01, in Dipton on D46.06, in Leadgate on L65.01 and in the D.L.I. Book of Remembrance page 269
