With grateful thanks to Ciaran Conlan for finding the link that led to the discovery of this forgotten WW1 soldier poet and to Derek O Byrne White for his help in discovering that Dudley was a poet and finding out more about him.
On the Census of 1911, when he was 18 and listed as a scholar, Dudley was recorded living in his parents' house at 20.2 Grove Park (Rathmines & Rathgar West, Dublin).
During the First World War, Dudley served as a Captain in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, Unit 4th Batallion, attached to 2nd Batallion. He was seriously wounded while on active service on the Western Front -
‘He saw some Germans going into a wood some distance off and wanted to telephone to the General. There was no telephone in the trench, so he ran 80 yards across the open in a hail of bullets and telephoned from another trench. The General ordered the wood to be shelled at once and commended him for what he had done. He also found that the Germans were mining the trench, and started counter-mining, which stopped the enemy’s game, so he did all he could bravely, poor boy.’ (De Ruvigny’s Roll of Honour)
Sadly, Dudley died of his wounds on 1st February 1915 at No. 2 Casualty Clearing Station, Bailleul, France. Dudley was buried in Bailleul Communal Cemetery, Bailleul, Departement du Nord, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France; Grave Reference: PLOT F. 6.
Derek O Byrne White put me in touch with Gerard Kearnery who has published two books about the extremely interesting Persse Family – “The Perse Family of County Galloway” and “In Days That Were: The Great War and Beyond” – both books are available to purchase from http://www.kennys.ie
I am hoping to be able to up-date this post with further information.
Sources:
A tag from Ciaran Conlan on a post on a Facebook page commemorating Irish Soldiers of WW1
Additional Sources:
https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000134590
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Persse-173
https://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/history/clare_men_women_great_war_29.pdf
