Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

1914 Star (9028 Dmr: J. Kilgannon. 1/Devon: R.) good very fine £100-£140

John Kilgannon was born in Devonport in 1882, the second son of Irish-born Army Service Corps pensioner James Kilgannon of the Town Barracks, Exeter. He joined the Devonshire Regiment as Drummer aged 14 years and is recorded in the Daily News (London) on 2 July 1901 as ‘dangerously ill’ at Standerton in consequence of enteric fever. Returned home from South Africa, Kilgannon married Agnes Gillard in 1906 and is recorded in 1911 as garrisoned at Tidworth Barracks in Hampshire.

Crossing to France with the 1st Battalion around 22 August 1914, Kilgannon immediately found himself engaged in the defence of the Belgian town of Mons. The Western Guardian of 8 October 1914, notes: ‘Drummer J. Kilgannon, who has died in hospital at Braisne [sic] from a gunshot wound received at Mons, leaves a widow and four children at Mermaid Yard, Exeter. Kilgannon had had 18 years’ service, and went through the South African war, at the conclusion of which he was one of those drummers presented by the county with a silver drum.’

At the age of 34, Kilgannon died of his wound on 20 September 1914 and is buried in Braine Communal Cemetery, Aisne, France.