Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Freynestown (Irish: Baile an Fhréinigh, meaning "town of freyne") is a townland in the civil parish of Tiscoffin in the barony of Gowran, County Kilkenny, Ireland. Freynestown was anciently located in the Kingdom of Ossory.

Service number 2346 , Private, 9th Infantry Battalion, 7th Reinforcement, AIF WW1

Service number 2195 , Private, 26th Infantry Battalion, 4th Reinforcement AIF WW1

Address Trades Hall, Rockhampton, Queensland

Next of kin Brother, Patrick Byrne, Trades Hall, Rockhampton, Queensland.

Enlistment date 8 May 1915
Place of enlistment Cloncurry, Queensland.

Unit embarked from Brisbane, Queensland, on board HMAT A26 Armadale on 20 September 1915-he was then 42.

[It is possible that he embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A9 Shropshire on 20 August 1915]

Unit from Nominal Roll 4th Divisional Salvage Company

Returned to Australia 13 March 1918
Discharge date 29 June 1918.

War service: Egypt, Western Front

Embarked Brisbane, 18 September 1915. Joined 26th Bn, Tel el Kebir, 11 January 1916.

Admitted to 7th Field Ambulance and transferred to No. 2 Casualty Clearing Station, Ismailia (disease), 22 February 1916; transferred to 1st Dermatological Hospital, Abbassia, 27 February 1916; discharged, 8 March 1916; total period of treatment for disease: 16 days.

Joined 52nd Bn, Serapeum, 2 April 1916.

Proceeded to join the British Expeditionary Force, embarking at Alexandria, 2 June 1916; disembarked Marseilles, France, 5 June 1916. Attached to Sailly Traffic Control Squadron, France, 5 July 1916.

Admitted to 1st Australian Casualty Clearing Station (not yet diagnosed), 4 December 1916; rejoined detached duty at Traffic Control Squadron, France, 12 December 1916. Rejoined 52nd Bn, 24 February 1917.

Detached to duty at 13th Infantry Brigade, Mining Section, 2 March 1917. Admitted to 56th Casualty Clearing Station (pyarrhara) 25 May 1917; discharged to duty, 8 June 1917.

Transferred to 4th Division Salvage Company, France, 17 June 1917. Admitted to 4th Field Ambulance and transferred to 13th Field Ambulance, 14 August 1917; transferred to 2nd Australian Casualty Clearing Station, 15 August 1917; to Australian General Base Depot, Havre, 1 September 1917; to 39th General Hospital, 19 August 1917; total period of treatment for disease: 19 days. Marched out to 1st Australian General Headquarters, for duty, 1 October 1917.

Transferred from Rouen to Australian Imperial Force Headquarters, London, 3 January 1918. Marched in to No. 2 Command Depot, Weymouth, from furlough, 18 January 1918.

Commenced return to Australia on board HT 'Dunvegan Castle', 13 March 1918.

Mrs Eleanor BYRNE, Frew Street, Chillagoe, Queensland, wrote to Base Records, 25 December 1916, seeking details of M J BYRNE, and stating that she had heard he had been killed in action. She wrote again, 16 February 1917, forwarding a copy of her marriage certificate, in order that she could be registered on his personal file as 'stated to be wife', and informing the authorities that she had had two children by him: Patrick Joseph (b. 15 May 1902) and Marcella (b. 24 January 1905). She wrote again, 27 February 1918, saying that her letter to him of May 1917 had been returned, marked 'unable to trace'. 'So it is evident he has disappeared', she concluded, asking if was possible for her to receive the usual war allowance for the two children, Marcella being 'a very delicate child'.

M J BYRNE's claim for a war pension, and a pension for his daughter Marcella (address: PO Cloncurry), was rejected, 22 July 1918, on the grounds that 'claimant's incapacity, if any, is not the result of his employment in connection with warlike operations'.