DARCY, Dennis
| Service Number: | 5972 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 4 September 1916 |
| Last Rank: | Sapper |
| Last Unit: | Tunnelling Companies |
| Born: | Franklin, Tasmania, Australia, September 1890 |
| Home Town: | Franklin, Huon Valley, Tasmania |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Labourer |
| Died: | Misadventure - fell asleep with a cigarette in hand, Franklin Hotel, Franklin, Tasmania, Australia, 28 June 1918 |
| Cemetery: | Not yet discovered |
| Memorials: | Loyal Franklin Lodge No 4611 Pictorial HR |
World War 1 Service
| 4 Sep 1916: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Sapper, 5972, Tunnelling Companies | |
|---|---|---|
| 25 Oct 1916: | Involvement Sapper, 5972, Tunnelling Companies, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '6' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Ulysses embarkation_ship_number: A38 public_note: '' | |
| 25 Oct 1916: | Embarked Sapper, 5972, Tunnelling Companies, HMAT Ulysses, Melbourne |
Help us honour Dennis Darcy's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Evan Evans
From Susan Geason
#5972 Sapper DENIS DARCY (DARCEY)
3rd Tunnelling Coy
Denis Darcy, brother of Martin Darcy (#5172) and son of William Darcy and Mary Woolley was a labourer from Franklin. He had been in the militia for three years, when he enlisted on 4 September 1916, a couple of weeks before his 29th birthday, although he gave his age as 26. On his enlistment form the doctors flagged a growth on his left cheek.
Dennis began training with the sappers at Seymour in Victoria on 29 September 1916, and embarked for England from Melbourne on HMAT Ulysses 25 October with his cousin Jack Oakford (#6032).
He was sent to France on 21 January 1917, and was assigned to the 3rd Tunnelling Coy on 6 February. The company was allotted the chalk area in the Lens coalfield and carried out tunnelling and dug-out work in the sectors around Loos, Lens and Givenchy, with headquarters at Neux la Mines. But Dennis was only underground for two months before he was struck in the face by a piece of timber and evacuated to Middlesex War Hospital at Napsbury for treatment. There the growth on his face was diagnosed as an angioma—a benign growth consisting of small blood vessels that can bleed profusely if breached. While in England Dennis forfeited a day’s pay for failing to salute an officer of HM Forces in The Strand at 3.30 pm on 10 October 1917.
The angioma led to Dennis’s evacuation to Australia on 24 Jan 1918, and he was discharged on medical grounds on 9 April with a one-quarter disability. Because his condition was not due to war service but had been aggravated by it, he was awarded a pension of 15 shillings per fortnight from 10 April. He did not collect it for long, as he died on 28 June 1918 from burns received after falling asleep with a cigarette in his hand in the Franklin Hotel.
Click images to start slideshow.