Lieutenant Desmond Hillary Quin

Born in 1894 in the Irish town of Listowel, near Tarbert, County Kerry, Desmond was the son of John and Mary Quin. The couple also had two other sons Brendan and Gerald. Their only daughter, Ita, seems to have died in childhood. John Quin was a retired police officer and in 1901 the family was living at Bridewell Street, Tarbert. By 1911, Desmond’s father had died and the Quin family had moved to 7 Lebanon Gardens, Wandsworth, London. Desmond was now a student at Wimbledon College and his older brother was a clerk for a South African company.

In 1911 Desmond enlisted in the Artists Rifles, then a territorial force based at Wellington Barracks. Surviving military records describe him as being 6 feet, 4 inches tall with a 39 inch chest. He had also endured a health scare, having survived the removal of a small tumour. He was a good rugby player, playing centre three quarter for London Irish first XV.

By 1916 Desmond was a Lieutenant in the Queens Royal West Surrey Regiment. He was later attached to the Royal Welsh Fusiliers and his unit embarked for Mesopotamia ( Iraq, ) before travelling to Salonika, Greece in February 1917. Records show that he attended Anti-Gas training in June 1917 and spent time in hospital suffering from dysentery.

In early 1918 Allied troops in Salonika, supported by the Greek Army, were prepared for a major offensive aimed at ending the war in the Balkans. The fighting started in July but the main British involvement came in early September, with an attack on a series of fortified hills. On September 15 there was a final assault across the entire front, with British forces targeting the Lake Doiran area. Heavy fighting occurred on 18 and 19 September 1918, when the men had to stage a frontal assault on 'Pip Ridge,' a heavily defended mountainous site, some 2000 feet high. There were also enemy fortresses on some of the higher peaks, notably Grand Couronne. This proved disastrous for the British Divisions, which sustained very heavy losses.

The following first-hand account by 'An Unprofessional Soldier' from the Staff of the 28th Division, was published c.1938 under the title "I saw the Futile Massacre at Doiran":

“The Battle of Doiran is now a forgotten episode of the Great War… Yet, in singularity of horror and in tragedy of defeated heroism, it is unique among the records of British arms. While the 60th Brigade was thus repulsed on the ridge, a Greek regiment was thrown into disorder by a counter attack on the right. At the same time the Welsh Brigade was advancing towards Grand Couronne. No feat of arms can ever surpass the glorious bravery of those Welshmen. There was lingering gas in the Jumeaux Ravine ( probably ours! ) and some of the men had to fight in respirators. Imagine, if you can, what it means to fight up a hillside under deadly fire, wearing a hot mask over your face, dimly staring through a pair of clouded goggles, and sucking the end of a rubber nozzle in your mouth. At the same time heat is pouring down on you from a brazen sky. In this plight you are called on to endure the blast of machine-gun fire, the pointed steel or bursting shell of the enemy. Nor are you called on to endure alone; you must vigorously fire back, and vigorously assail with your own bayonet. It is as much like hell as anything you can think of. Welsh Fusiliers got as far as the Hilt, only half a mile below the central fortress, before being driven back by a fierce Bulgarian charge. Every officer was killed or wounded.”

Desmond was one of those killed on 18 September 1918. He was buried in the Doiran Military Cemetery, Greece and is commemorated on a memorial at Wimbledon College.