Daniel Joseph Sheehan

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Daniel Joseph Sheehan, Lieutenant (14 November 1894 Ireland - 10 May 1917) was the eldest son of Captain D. D. Sheehan, MP.

He was educated at Christian College, Cork, and Mount St. Joseph's College, Roscrea, Co. Tipperary. He played for Munster two years in the Senior College Inter-Provintial Rugby Championships and was considered the best three-quarter back in Ireland. He joined the Devitt and Moore's Ocean Training Ship Medway as a Cadet in 1912, winning first prize for Navigation and General Seamanship. He transferred to H.M.S. Hibernia as midshipman, R.N.R., for training with a view to a permanent commission in the Navy.

After serving with the 3rd Battle Squadron in the North Sea, on the outbreak of World War I in 1914-15, he was transferred to the Naval Air Service, obtaining his aviator's certificate in 1915. He was wounded while flying in Belgium, and, being regarded as unfit for further service with the Naval Air Force, received permission to transfer to the Royal Flying Corps. He was engaged for a time as Instructor at Oxford, England, then went on active service again.

He met his death on 10 May 1917, when on a scouting expedition, a superior body of German aircraft engaged the British battle-plane, and Lieut. Sheehan and another officer were killed. He managed to land the damaged plane in an open field, near Noyelles, before he died in the cockpit. He was buried at Cabaret-Rouge Cemetery, at Souchez, France. His superior officer wrote: 'he was loved by all and was by nature absolutely devoid of fear'.

The Anglo-Irish poet William Butler Yeats wrote the inspired symbolic poem entitled: An Irish Airman forsees his Death.

Grave no.: Plot 16, Row N16 (rear left). Souchez lies 14 km. nw. of Arras (sw. of Lille).

(Biography as recorded in the British War Office publication "Soldiers Died in the Great War".)