Whilst
at Belvedere, Joseph was a good student; he was rewarded for his work by being
one of seven boys selected from Rudiments (then third class) to attend ‘the
excursion’. This was an annual day-out to reward the best students. That year,
1907, the day included a trip to the Vale of Avoca by train, a
picnic—‘chickens, ham, rounds of beef and legs of mutton, tarts and cakes and
oranges’—and then tea back at Belvedere before home-time at 9pm.
Joseph
make his first Holy Communion in June, 1909, and was confirmed by the
Archbishop of Dublin in March, 1910, both through Belvedere.
Though
a good student, Joseph was also interested in a variety of sports at Belvedere.
He played for the under-thirteen rugby team at the school and was also a fine
swimmer, winning a medal for second place in the under-sixteen fifty-yard
handicap at the 1910 Leinster Swimming Gala in Blackrock.
He
began study at TCD in 1915 and joined the Dublin University Officers’ Training
Corps (hereafter DU OTC) in November, 1915. He applied unsuccessfully for a
commission in January, 1916, but was successful on his second attempt in
mid-April, 1916. He was waiting to be called up for officer training when the
Easter rising began.
The
DU OTC was founded in the summer of 1910. Its headquarters was in the northeast
corner of the college, consisting of a two-storey building and an adjoining
parading ground. The idea of the Corps was to give military training to
university students in order to prepare them for commissions as army officers,
if they so desired, particularly if needed for service at short notice. A
special brand of OTC cigarette and tobacco was sold at Lawlor’s on Nassau
Street. After August, 1914, the numbers of members at the DU OTC increased
greatly. However, at the beginning at the rising on 24 April, 1916, the entire TCD
complex was guarded by only eight members.
Word
of the rebellion first came to TCD when the porter, George Crawford, was
informed by a friend at the front gate. Not long afterwards, the chief steward,
Joseph Marshall, ordered the front gate and all other gates to be closed and
locked. Eighteen-year-old Sergeant Charles Mein was commander of the OTC that
day and distributed service rifles and ammunition to the men and posted sentries
on the gates. The headquarters of the OTC was put into a state of defence and
barricades were erected.
At
about 3pm, Captain E. H. Alton—later Provost of the college—was in command of
the defence of Trinity College. Lieutenant Arthur Luce of 12th
Battalion Royal Irish Rifles recalled that morning’s participants:
We were a motley crew. There were soldiers on leave or
holiday, like myself; there were several soldiers who came into College to take
refuge from firing in the streets. I remember one or two Australians among them
… with the O.T.C. detachment our numbers may have reached fifty.
Throughout
the week more OTC members and other British Army personnel arrived at the
college for service. They established positions and used their views of the
surrounding streets to snipe and keep watch for an expected attack. From
Tuesday, 25 April, regular soldiers from the Curragh—5th Leinster
Regiment—and from England—59th (2nd North Midland)
Division—arrived at TCD. Brigadier-General William Lowe established his headquarters
at the college.
Then armed with two machine guns, from the Curragh, on
the college roof and two nine-pounder field guns, the position at TCD severely
impeded communication between the two insurgent ‘storm centres’ (to use the
words of Major G. A. Harris, Adjutant of the DU OTC) at the GPO and St
Stephen’s Green.
The Belvederian
of 1918 reported that Joseph Malone had been in the DU OTC, ‘in which he served
during the trouble times in Dublin,’ meaning, of course, Easter week, 1916. On
Saturday, 5 August, 1916, at 3pm, the DU OTC received a presentation from the
citizens of Dublin to commemorate their actions during the rebellion.
To the prompt measures, defensive and offensive,
organised by this Corps was due the preservation of valuable life and property
in Grafton street, Nassau street, College Given, College street. Dame street,
and Westmoreland street, including not only the historic building; of the
College itself, but the Bank of Ireland and many other of our finest buildings.
Two
large presentation silver cups were presented to the Commandant of the DU OTC,
who handed them over to the Provost of Trinity College. Swords were presented
to the officers of the Corps and silver replica cups were given to all members
of the Corps who participated in the work of defending the college. Included
amongst the staff, officers, honorary members, other ranks, colonial soldiers
and eleven ladies—who ‘rendered valuable services during the rebellion’—Cadet
J. J. Malone was listed in the ‘Defenders of Trinity College Honoured’ section
of the Weekly Irish Times Sinn Fein
Rebellion Handbook.
The
position and activity at Trinity College protected the businesses in the
vicinity from the worst of the looting and prevented the Bank of Ireland
buildings at College Green from being occupied by the Irish Volunteers. Had the
college been captured by the rebels Major Harris speculated that the buildings
and the college library would have been destroyed, amounting to a ‘national
calamity’.
Joseph
Malone was commissioned as a Second-Lieutenant in September, 1916, and posted
to the 9th Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers. In January, 1917, he
was sent to join the 16th (Irish) Division on the western front. On
16 August, during the battle of Frezenberg Ridge, Malone disappeared during the
fighting.
On
23 August, Joseph’s brother, John, received the following telegram at the North
Star Hotel, Amiens Street:
Regret to inform you that 2/ Lieu JJ Malone Dublin
Fusiliers is reported wounded & missing sixteenth august. Further reports
will be sent if received.
On
1 September, John received this further telegram:
Deeply regret to inform that 2nd Lieut. JJ
Malone Dublin Fusiliers previously reported wounded & missing is now
reported killed in action august sixteenth. The army council express their
sympathy.
With
no known grave, Second-Lieutenant Joseph James Malone is commemorated at panel
144-145 of the Tyne Cot memorial in Belgium.
His
obituary in The Belvederian of 1918
is as follows:
In those tragic days of August 1917, when the ranks of
several Irish regiments were sadly thinned, Joe Malone met his death. He
received his commission in September, 1916, after passing through the Trinity
College O. T. C., in which he served during the troubled times in Dublin in the
same year. He spent several months at the front, and had been home on leave not
long before has last engagement. No details of the circumstances in which he
met his death were received by his relatives other than the first information
that he was wounded and missing, and the announcement, a few days later that he
was killed.
Both at school and afterwards at the University, Joe
was deservedly popular, for his unassuming manner and genuine friendliness won
the hearts of all with whom he came in contact. To his three brothers, as well
as to his other relatives, we offer our sincerest sympathy in their loss.
R.I.P.
Both
of Joseph’s parents had been dead for some time and his brother, John, was
looking after his younger brothers and sister.
In
the publication University of Dublin,
Trinity College: War List, February, 1922, Joseph appeared:
Malone, Joseph James;
Ent. 1915; Cadet 7 Bn., May 1916; 2 Lt. 11 R. Dub.
Fus., Sept. 1916; killed in action, 16 Aug. 1917.
Malone
is also commemorated within the complex of TCD—his name can be found on one of
six plaques, in the 1937 Reading Room for postgraduate students, which recall
the war list.
