born Benwell, Northumberland 1899
died Limerick, Ireland 1972
Army Service of Private George Thomas Dixon
George left home, without the knowledge of his parents, to join up for was service, giving a false age. George's records of his service in Word War I are lost, so details of his war service are not known, other than that he was in France. His final discharge from the Army records that he had had been awarded the British War Medal and Victory Medal during this engagement.
George's discharge certificate records that his first appointment was to the Tank Corps (formed on 28 July 1917 from the Heavy Branch of the Machine Gun Corps).
The discharge certificate also records that he had re-enlisted at Le Treport, France on 14th February 1919.
His discharge on 31st March 1922 on "termination of engagement" was from the 5th Armoured Car Company of the Tank Corps (the Armoured Car Companies had been formed in 1920 - the 5th Armoured Car Company is understood to have been the remnant of the original 17th Armoured Car Battalion of the Tank Corps).
- Tank Corps Memorial at Poziers complete with photographs of tanks in use in World War I
- "The 17th Armoured Car Battalion, Tank Corps, was placed at the disposal of the Australian Corps. It was given an independent mission to move direct against enemy centers of communication, headquarters etc. Its operations were brilliantly successful and its exploits read like a tale of the old days." (source)
- Armoured Cars during World War I
The Limerick to which George Thomas Dixon came
The 1898 Local Government Act established the powers of county councils, and the first elections to the new bodies were held in 1899. Limerick County Council met for the first time on 22 April of that year. In 1902 the United Irish League won over 90% of the seats on the County Council, and over 80% in the Rural District Councils. There were 29 branches of the UIL in County Limerick, although the Royal Irish Constabulary estimated that there were only 100 members in the city. According to the same source there were 2,050 IRB members, 700 members of the Gaelic Athletic Association and 1,019 members of trade unions.
In 1904, Father John Creagh, the Redemptorist director of the Holy Family Confraternity, organised a boycott of Jewish businesses in Limerick. Jews had begun to arrive in the city in the 1880s and 1890s from eastern Europe and Russia, and had already been subject to some violence since their arrival. Apparently Creagh had attempted to organise a credit union to cater for some of the poorer parishioners, but had met with opposition from local Roman Catholic and Protestant businessmen. Instead of confronting them, he accused local Jews of denying people the means to live. The ‘pogrom’ lasted two years during which most Limerick Jews moved out of the city.
In 1911 there was only one Unionist councillor out of 30, although the Unionist Association did organise a meeting in October 1912 at the Theatre Royal to protest against the Home Rule Bill. It was addressed by George Wyndham MP and was the scene of a counter-demonstration by nationalists.The first Irish National Volunteer recruiting meeting in Limerick took place at the Athenaeum in January 1914, and when, after the split in the organisation, the anti-Redmondite Irish Volunteers marched through the city in May 1915, they were abused by soldiers and local ‘separation women’ whose husbands had gone to fight in the First World War. A total of 1,776 Limerick men joined the British Army in 1915, of whom 586 were Redmondite Volunteers
Forty-eight Limerick people were arrested following the 1916 rising. One of them was Edward Daly, nephew of the former mayor and brother of Kathleen Clarke who was married to Tom Clarke, one of the key leaders of the rebellion. Daly was executed on 4 May. Another of the leaders sentenced to death was Eamon de Valera who had been brought up in Bruree. There were ten Limerick men interned in Frongoch, and in August Limerick Corporation passed a resolution condemning the military authorities for the expulsion orders.
Working class militancy was also increasing, and encompassed both national and social issues. In May 1918, 10,000 marched through Limerick to celebrate May Day, and the city also closed down on the occasion of the general strike against conscription in 1918, and in support of the IRA hunger strikers in 1920. On 6 April 1919, the attempted rescue of Volunteer Robert Byrne from the Limerick Infirmary, and the massive turnout at his funeral, led to the imposition of martial law in the city. The Trades Council, with the support of most local bodies, assumed the day to day running of the city. What has become known as the ‘Limerick Soviet’ began on 14 April 1919, and lasted until martial law was lifted on 26 April 1919.
In the 1918 election, Sinn Féin won Limerick City and Limerick West, unopposed, and Limerick East, defeating the Irish Parliamentary Party by 12,750 votes to 3,608. Limerick was one of the more active areas in the War of Independence, and one of the most famous early incidents, the rescue of Sean Hogan in May 1919, took place at Knocklong. There were a number of large-scale attacks on RIC barracks, including the capture of Ballylanders, and the county was placed under martial law in December 1920.
The Black and Tans were deployed in the county, and were apparently given their name by Christopher O’Sullivan, editor of the Limerick Echo, who likened their uniform to the colouring of the hounds of the Scarteen Hunt. The Black and Tans were responsible for a number of killings and even became involved in a shoot-out with the regular RIC at an hotel in Castleconnell, during which four people were killed. This incident was raised in the House of Commons to highlight the growing disorder in the country as a whole.
In June 1920, Sinn Féin took control of the County Council, which pledged allegiance to the Republic. The Chairman of the Council, Sean Wall, was killed by the British while taking part in an ambush at Annacarthy in May 1921. The 1921 elections saw the return of four unopposed Sinn Féin TDs in Limerick city, including Kathleen O’Callaghan, widow of a former Lord Mayor of Limerick, who had been shot dead by British agents on March 7, 1921.
There was fighting in the city in July 1922, between those who supported and those who were against the treaty, before the anti-Treatyites withdrew on 21 July.
The rise of Fianna Fáil brought about a fundamental change in local as well as in national politics, and the party took power in 1932, winning four of the seven Limerick seats. . Some of the more extreme republicans, however, remained outside the fold.
This was the Limerick to which George Thomas Dixon was posted by the British Army and into which his elder son George Thomas Dixon was born.
