Terence Colton RIP: Patsy Brady introduced me to the story of Terence Colton and it was obvious that he had carried out extensive research to gather the details of the life of one Terence Colton and he had also traced and got in contact with a surviving family relation. He told me about it and I heard a lovely but sad story of a young man who went off to war but never returned. It then turned out that there was an Emyvale connection with the story and I then was given the full story and was put in contact with the relative, namely Angie Colton, who now resides in Ennis Co. Clare. So the story is: Terence Colton. In the 1960’s, in the Brady household, the children used hear their father, the late Pat Brady, talk about Frank Colton’s son, who went to war and never returned. Frank was a Blacksmith in Cornagilta, where he rented property from the McKenna family. Frank was a widower and he met and married a widow called Rose Mohan, nee Duffy of Duffy’s Mill. They had two children, Johnny and Eileen and they attended Cornagilta School in the 1920’s. Eileen became Mrs. Owenie Hackett and moved to the Augher area and had 12 children while Johnny married and moved to Duffy’s Mill but his wife, Margaret, died at childbirth in 1960 and left Johnny with nine children – Jimmy, Margaret, Frank, Sean, Eugene, Terry, Anthony, Mary and Eileen. However the story of the man, who went to war and never returned intrigued local historian, Patsy Brady, and he decided to carry out research to see if he could identify the person and learn something about him. He was getting no leads until in 2018, while searching on the internet he came across a lady called Angie Colton, who was a direct family friend and who currently lives in Ennis. She was delighted to hear of the family links with Cornagilta, and that a ‘T’ junction in the townland was still called ‘Colton’s Turn. This evoked a desire in Angie to get involved in the research too. Her grandfather, Frank, was a member of An Garda Síochána. He died in 1988 and is buried in a family plot in Corracrin. Angie has done a great research and has helped to fill the gaps for Patsy Brady and complete the story of the man who never came home from the war. The man’s name is Terence Colton and his sad story details his young life and death. Frank Colton, the blacksmith above, was living in Coolkill East in the parish of Tydavnet and married to Annie, nee Connolly. They had four children but Annie passed away in 1905 at the age of 29. Frank was 34 at this time and the eldest child, James (Jim), was 8 years old, Terence was next at 7 years, Annie was 5 years and Francis, who became Angie’s grandfather, was about 3 years old. As happened with many families when a mother has died leaving a number of young children, Frank’s children were sent to live with relatives, except Terence, who stayed with the father at Cornagilta. Jim and Annie went to the grandmother, Mary Connolly, in Ardnasallem, while Francis went to McKenna’s in Tiernaneil. Annie later married Willie Hendry, and they moved in to Main Street, Emyvale, and began an ‘Eating House’. Terence and Jim enlisted in the Royal Navy in Portsmouth on the same day in September 1915. Both had added two years to their age in order to be accepted. They spent the next twelve months or so in training on land and sea in Portsmouth and Dover. In June 1916 Terence joined the crew of the HMS Paragon and Jim was assigned to the HMS Llewellyn in January 1917. Both ships were on the Dover Patrol, which was to prevent enemy ships passing through the Straits of Dover. On the night of March 17th 1917 the Paragon, with three other ships – HMS Lartes, HMS Laforey and the HMS Llewellyn were on patrol in the Straits of Dover, when a German Destroyer torpedoed the HMS Paragon, which broke in half and sank within 8 minutes. Some of the Depth Charges on the Paragon also exploded, which added to the destruction and loss of life. The Laforey and the Llewellyn arrived on the scene within 10 minutes or so and the Llewellyn was also hit by a torpedo but escaped serious damage. They picked up ten men from the water but only two survived from a ship’s compliment of 75. The body of Terence was never found RIP. One week later the HMS Laforey was destroyed by a British mine, which had been incorrectly disposed of, and 64 of the 67 crew on board were killed. The name of Terence Colton is inscribed on a huge Portsmouth Naval Memorial, which commemorates 10,000 sailors lost in WW1 and 15,000 in World War11. Jim remained in the Navy until 1919 and joined the Merchant Navy but then returned and became a gardener at a Convent in Trim, Co. Meath. He moved to Belturbet, when he retired, and lived across the street from Angie’s grandfather, Frank, who was a Garda in the town. This is a sad story and yet a wonderful one to have been researched and recorded and we thank Patsy and Angie for their great work and perseverance in putting the pieces together and providing us with such an informative piece of history. The Emyvale connection is through the Hendrys, who lived in the house to the right of the Scarna Inn. Annie, Terence’s sister, married Willie Hendry. Angie’s father, Brendan was a Garda but lived in Belturbet and played on the Cavan Minor team and played for a number of clubs including Scotstown and knew that he played against a cousin, namely Sean Hendry. He is following the story as it develops. It is an amazing story and a small world.