Albert Rowe N.C.O 122nd Battery, 52 Brigade, Royal Field Artillery pictured with his family

Albert Rowe home on leave from the First World War pictured with his family. Albert is shown here with a walking stick. He was a sharp shooter with the 122nd Battery, 52nd Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery. He was stationed in Dundalk at the outbreak of the First World War. He was involved in the early battles of the war and was decorated for his efforts in helping to provide cover for the retreating 5th Army at the battle of the Mons. He was injured twice in April 1917 and was sent the Wharncliffe Hospital in Sheffield before returning to recuperate in hospital in Dublin Castle. He died in 1925 from Nephritis contracted from “lying about in wet ground”. He is pictured here with his wife Mary (neé Ladrigan b. Cahir, Tipperary) on his right and son Jackie front left, daughter Frances centre and son Bertie on the right. Bertie had suffered brain damage as a result of contracting meningitis as a baby. After the death of his parents he spent the remainder of his life in St. Brigid’s Mental Institution, Ardee, County Louth. Some of his time in the asylum was spent in quarantine as he was a T.B. carrier.