Edward Gerrard was born in 1892 or 1893 and entered
Belvedere College the year of 1903-1904, with an address in Clonskeagh. The Belvederian
of 1908 reported that Gerrard played 'another shoemaker' in that year's
production of the play 'A Pair of Spectacles'—an adapted play by Sydney Grundy—and
his part was described as 'adequately represented'.
He
then attended Clongowes Wood College and finished his education there in 1910.
In his witness statement given to the BMH, Edward only mentioned his attendance at Clongowes,
perhaps only referring to his last secondary-level school.
After
leaving school, Edward received a commission in the British Army and was posted
to the RFA. In at least July, 1914, he was a Second-Lieutenant. By the spring
of 1916, Edward had seen action in many theatres of the Great War. He was
landed in Gallipoli on 19 July, 1915. The
Belvederian of 1916 reported:
Lieutenant
E. Gerrard has been through the Easter campaign, and has had plenty of experience
of Suvla, Lemnos and Alexandria. He contracted dysentery at Lemnos and was
invalided for some time at Alexandria and thence sent home.
Gerrard
was in Ireland in April, 1916, away from the Dardanelles. During this time, he
was stationed at Athlone and served with the 5th (A) Reserve Artillery
Brigade in Victoria Barracks. Being an officer with the RFA, he was interested
in the big guns that were present:
In
Athlone there were two batteries - eight guns. Not one of these game was in a
position to fire without being oiled and pumped by the artificers. It would
have taken them two days to get them into action. The only ammunition of any
sort in Athlone, was shrapnel.
At
Easter, 1916, Gerrard was home on leave. He was twenty-three years old at the
time of the Easter rising. He heard that there were ‘disturbances in Dublin’
and went to investigate for himself. His witness statement describes his
encounter with the rebels, likely to have been Irish Citizen Army:
I
was in civilian attire. I was in Harcourt Street when I heard a shout: ‘Stop
the man with the pipe’. I hastily removed my pipe and managed to escape. I did
not know what was going on. I saw the insurrection troops assembling at the top
of Grafton Street and going into Stephen's Green.
Although
he admired the rebels’ ‘magnificent physique,’ Gerrard realised something
serious was happening and returned home to pick up his uniform. Gerrard was one
of many soldiers on leave in Dublin who reported for duty during Easter week.
He arrived at Beggars Bush Barracks at about eight o’clock on Monday evening,
24 April, 1916.
Gerrard
recalled that, when he arrived at the barracks, there was a shortage of
experienced officers and arms. The Irish Association of Volunteer Training
Corps were present but their rifles ‘were not service type’ and they had no
ammunition. Beggars Bush Barracks also housed the 2nd Garrison
Battalion of the Royal Irish Regiment and these men were equally as unequipped.
Together they could muster only a few Lee-Enfield rifles as well as old Italian
and Russian rifles that would not take the Lee-Enfield .303 calibre ammunition.
Early in the week, had the Irish Volunteers attempted to take the barracks,
they would have found a hungry, badly-armed guard. Gerrard put it simply:
‘There was nothing in Beggars Bush Barracks if only they had rushed it.’
Gerrard
remembered that there was ‘not a scrap of food’ at the barracks and that these
circumstances continued for two days. However, on the Wednesday morning,
supplies appeared. James Rowan, a fifteen-year-old observer recalled:
I
happened to be up very early on Wednesday morning and, at about 6 a.m., I saw
three Jacob's Biscuit Factory lorries, which had evidently been commandeered by
British military, enter Beggars Bush Barracks with supplies of food and ammunition.
Intense sniping kept the
men inside Beggars Bush engaged. Rowan continued:
From
that afternoon firing from the barracks started in earnest, a practically
continuous fusillade being kept up on Horan's grocery shop from the Shelbourne
Road side of the barracks.
On the Wednesday afternoon,
about twenty-five of the 2nd/7th Battalion and 2nd/8th
Battalion of the Sherwood Foresters who had managed to pass the Northumberland
Street positions, were commandeered and arrived at the Beggars Bush Barracks.
Theses soldiers were poorly trained and badly equipped. Gerrard remembered them
as ‘untrained, undersized products of the
English slums’.
Sir
Francis Shaw ordered Gerrard and Company Quartermaster-Sergeant of the 2nd
Garrison Battalion of the Royal Irish Regiment, Robert Gamble, to run an
assault on the rebel position on the railway bridge over the South Lotts Road. In
Gerrard’s words, the attack went as follows:
We got over the side of the Barracks and through the
houses on Shelbourne Road and up on to the railway by a ladder. I was over the
wall first, followed by Sergeant Gamble. soon as I got over the wall, at a
range of about 200 Yards, about eight Sinn Féiners advanced from the direction
of the city to meet us. I saw them coming towards us, firing. There was what
they call a fairly sharp fire fight. These men were standing up, not lying
down. They came out of their trenches to meet us. They were very brave, I
remember. They did not know how many of us there might be. The first casualty
was Q.M. Gamble. He was shot dead, under the right eye. I was the next
casualty. I don't know how many Sherwoods were killed. One of them was wounded
on the approach to the railway.
The Belvederian
of 1916 could inform its readers of the incident and of Edward’s wounds:
During the Easter rebellion he
was wounded near Beggar's Bush as he was leading a squad of men out on the
railway line. The wound fortunately was not serious, but it will be some time
before he can return on active service.
Gerrard was badly wounded in the right arm in the
attempt to storm and defeat the snipers’ position along the railway line.
Following the assault, Gerrard was taken to Portobello Barracks Hospital and
this marked the end of his involvement in the Easter rising. The Clongowes Wood College:
War List listed Gerrard’s service with the
following entry:
1910
[left CWC] Gerrard, Lt. Edward. R.A. (wounded)
The
Sinn Fein Rebellion Handbook compiled
lists of casualties from those issued by the War Office. Listed under ‘WOUNDED’
is ‘GERRARD, Sec. Lt. E., R.F.A.’ and it succinctly describes the action that
led to Gerrard’s wounds:
Later in the afternoon an attempt was made to dislodge
the Sinn Feiners from the railway, but, the latter were too strongly
entrenched. Sergeant-Major Gamble, from the garrison, accompanied the sortie
party, and was killed on the line, while [Second] Lieutenant Gerrard, R.F.A.,
who was in command of the party, was severely wounded in the right arm.
Gerrard later served in Ireland during the War of Independence. He was
aide-de-camp to Sir Hugh Jeudwine, the commanding officer of the 5th
Division. He ‘rode through Carlow and Kilkenny with the
Cavalry Brigade, 10th Hussars, and 12th Lancers, in June
and July, 1921.’ Gerrard was in Carlow when the truce was called to the war.
In
1922, Gerrard was serving in India with the 95th Battery, 18th
Brigade, RFA. The Belvederian of 1925
congratulated Edward on having achieved ‘considerable distinction in certain
professional examinations, especially in Higher Mathematics—a branch of
learning very necessary to artillery officers in these days of aeroplanes and
long-range guns.’ By then having risen to the rank of Captain, Gerrard’s
outstanding examination results were rewarded by having his captaincy
ante-dated eight years.
In
1931, Captain Edward Gerrard held the position of Adjutant of the Territorial
Artillery in Hull having also served in British Somaliland (part of Somalia),
perhaps with the Somaliland Camel Corps. He soon retired and returned to Dublin
and lived in Rathfarnham. He died in 1969 at the age of seventy-seven.
The Belvederian
1925 reported on the activities of Edward’s family members:
Captain
Roy Gerrard, a brother of Eddie’s is stationed at Poona with his Punjabi
Regiment, and is one of the youngest officers, for his service in the Indian
Army. He revels in big game hunting, his most recent achievement being a
seven-foot panther, killed by a single bullet in its head. He hopes to get home
on leave this summer.
Yet
another brother, Rex, is on the Civil Service, while Desmond and George are
managing their father’s business in Dublin. A sixth brother, St. Maur, is
studying for the priesthood at Sr. Edmund’s College, Ware.
Edward
Gerrard was buried in Cruagh Cemetary, Rockbrook, County Dublin. On his
headstone is the Latin inscription:
Ex umbris et imaginibus in veritatem. [Out of the
shadows and phantasms and into the truth.]
This
phrase was also used as the memorial epitaph of John Henry Cardinal Newman. One
of the truths that we find in the life of Edward Gerrard is that Irishmen and
Irishwomen fought, sacrificed and died on both sides of the conflict that was
the Easter rising, 1916.
