Born: 08 July 1872, Cabra Parade, Dublin / Roebuck House, Clonskeagh, Dublin
Entered: 17 April 1890, St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly
Ordained: 29 July 1906, Milltown Park, Sandford Road, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1911, St Francis Xavier, Gardiner Street, Dublin
Died: 27 November 1945, St Vincent's Nursing Home, Dublin
Part of the St Ignatius, Leeson Street, Dublin community at the time of death
Younger brother of Frederick Gill - LEFT 1928
Early education at CUS Dublin, Clongowes Wood College SJ and University College, St Stephen’s Green
Father (Henry Joseph Gill) was MP for Westmeath and Limerick
1890-1892: St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly, Novitiate
1892-1895: Milltown Park, Sandford Road, Dublin, Juniorate
1895-1898: Sint Jan Berchmans, Rue des Récollets, Leuven, Belgium (BELG), Philosophy
1898-1899: Sacred Heart College SJ, Crescent, Limerick, Regency
1899-1900: Coláiste Iognáid SJ, Sea Road, Galway, Regency
1900-1903: Clongowes Wood College SJ, Naas, County Kildare, Regency
1903-1907: Milltown Park, Sandford Road, Dublin, Theology
1907-1909: St Edmund’s Residence, Westgate Street, Bury St Edmund’s, Suffolk, England (ANG) studying Science at St Edmund’s Hall, University of Oxford, Queen’s Lane, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England (ANG)
1909-1910: Oude Abdij, Drongen, Belgium (BELG), Tertianship
1910-1913: Belvedere College SJ, Great Denmark Street, Dublin, Teaching
1913-1916: Rathfarnmham Castle, Dublin, Teaching Maths and Science
1916-1918: Military Chaplain - 2nd Royal Irish Rifles BEF France
1918-1923: St Ignatius, Leeson Street, Dublin, Assistant Prefect at University Hall; Editor “Studies” to 1922
1923-1924: Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin, Minister
1924-1930: Belvedere College SJ, Great Denmark Street, Dublin, Minister and Procurator
1930-1931: Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin, Minister and Procurator
1931-1945: St Ignatius, Leeson Street, Dublin, Minister to 1942; Spiritual Father and Procurator, University Hall
◆ https://www.jesuit.ie/blog/damien-burke/a-sparrow-to-fall/
A sparrow to fall
Damien Burke
A BBC Northern Ireland documentary, Voices 16 – Somme (BBC 1 NI on Wednesday 29th June, 9pm) explores the events of 1916 through the testimony of the people who witnessed it and their families. Documentary makers and relatives of Jesuit chaplain Willie Doyle were shown his letters, postcards and personal possessions kept here at the Irish Jesuit Archives. In the 1920s, Alfred O’Rahilly used some of these letters in his biography of Fr Willie Doyle SJ. Afterwards they were given to Willie’s brother, Charles, and were stored for safekeeping in the basement of St Francis Xavier’s church, Lower Gardiner Street, Dublin in 1949. In 2011, they were accessioned into the archives. Fr Willie Doyle SJ was one of ten Irish Jesuits who served as chaplains at the battle of the Somme (1 July- 18 November 1916): seven with the British forces; three with the Australian. Their letters, diaries and photographs witness their presence to the horror of war.
Fr Henry Gill SJ, 2nd Royal Irish Rifles (11 July 1916):
Just a line to say I am still alive. We are of course, as always, “in it”...I have been in, and I feel I know more than I want about shells of all sizes and conditions. It is a horrible and squalid business. Trenches full of mud with bodies of dead Germans and British lying unburied all along. Please God it will end soon, and that we may be able to forgot it all as quickly as possible. Gill was tasked with writing to relatives of soldiers who had been killed. These letters followed a pattern, where the following were mentioned, even if false: a quick death, little suffering and recent reception to the sacraments. He only lived a few minutes after he was shot and can have suffered but little pain, He always went to Confession and Holy Communion before an attack, now you may therefore be at ease about him. The letter was written by Gill to Maggie Duffy of Belfast in September 1916. Her husband, John Duffy was killed at the battle of the Somme in July 1916. Your Husband lived a good life and died a Hero’s death, that will not make your sorrow less, but it will help you to bear it in resignation to God’s will, Who, does not even a allow a sparrow to fall without his Providence
◆ https://www.jesuit.ie/blog/damien-burke/the-last-parting-jesuits-and-armistice/
The last parting: Jesuits and Armistice
At the end of the First World War, Irish Jesuits serving as chaplains had to deal with two main issues: their demobilisation and influenza. Some chaplains asked immediately to be demobbed back to Ireland; others wanted to continue as chaplains. Of the thirty-two Jesuits chaplains in the war, five had died, while sixteen were still serving.
Fr Henry Gill SJ, on leave on 10 November 1918 wrote:
In the mean time I had made arrangement for a trip of the greatest possible interest to myself. I was to be motored to Chaumout to get the train to Paris...and on the way I was to pay a visit to Domremy the birthplace of Joan of Arc. I looked forward to this visit with great pleasure. I had set out from Rouen, where the Saint was put to death, to begin my work at the front, and now after almost four years I was to visit her birthplace, and her Basilica, and to have the opportunity of making a pilgrimage to thank her for her protection during these years. For I had set out under her patronage. Fr Gill physically survived the war, but mentally, would suffer from what we call today post-traumatic stress, but in his time, was called nerves.
◆ Irish Province News 1st Year No 3 1926
Fr Henry Gill has received a communication from the President of the French Republic thanking him for distinguished service during the late war.
◆ Irish Province News 6th Year No 3 1931
Rathfarnham :
Our Minister, Fr. Henry Gill, has had the honour of being elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy.
◆ Irish Province News 21st Year No 1 1946
Obituary :
Fr. Henry Gill (1872-1890-1945)
Fr. Henry Gill died very peacefully in St. Vincent's Nursing Home at 8.30 a.m. on Tuesday, November 27th, whilst Mass was being offered for his intentions by two or three of the Community, at Leeson Street, He had been ailing for the past six months with an internal trouble which was diagnosed as cancer of the liver, but he was mercifully spared any acute pain, and it was only in the last few days of his life that his heart began to show serious signs of weakness. Indeed he took an active interest in the routine of daily life throughout his illness, and three days before his death was still able to correct final page proofs of a small “Life of Saint Joseph” which he had written during the past year. At the foot of the last page of these proofs he wrote in a hand that was shaky, but still legible : “Saint Joseph, Patron of a Happy Death, pray for us”.
Fr. Gill was born at Roebuck House near Dublin on July 8th, 1872. He lived to be the eldest surviving son of the late H. J. Gill, formerly a member of the Irish Party and head of the well-known publishing firma of Messrs. M. H. Gill and Son, Ltd. His grandfather had been Lord Mayor of Dublin, and Fr. Gill was a staunchly loyal son of the city of Dublin throughout his long life. He was educated at first in a small day-school at No. 6 Harcourt Street, where Newman bad formerly opened one of his Houses for resident students of the Catholic University. From this preparatory school Henry went to Clongowes, where he remained until the summer of 1889. He then spent some months as a student at old University College on St. Stephen's Green, and did not enter the novitiate until April of the following year. In later life he used to tell a humorous tale of the downcast young citizen of Dublin who journeyed by train and car to the Tullabeg of those far off days. His vocation, so he would argue, was a clear instance of the triumph of God's grace over every natural inclination! After two years in the Bog, Henry came back to the city and spent the next three years and a half at Milltown Park, where he was beadle of the Juniors and attended lectures at the old College in Mathematics and Science. Thence he went to Louvain for his Philosophy, 1895-8, where he was brought into contact with professors who were eager to explain traditional principles of philosophy in terms of modern science. On his return from Louvain Mr. Gill spent the next five years in the Colleges (Limerick, Galway and Clongowes), but gave little promise at this time of the distinctions that were to come to him in later life. He was indeed curiously unable to teach a straightforward class, even in his own favourite subjects, though he was later to display an exceptional gift for the exposition and quiet criticism of scientific principles. From 1903-7 he studied Theology in Milltown Park, and was ordained there by Archbishop Walsh on July 18th, 1906.
Fr Gill was then granted permission by Fr Conmee to study the Physical Sciences at Cambridge for the next two years. Professor J. J. Thompson was then organising the Cavendish Laboratories as a centre of world-famous scientific research, and Fr. Gill had the good fortune to be associated for a time with some of the men who were later to make history in the development of modern Physics. He never lost the memory of those happy days; and when his old Professor published his autobiography in 1936, Fr. Gill reviewed it in Studies under the well-chosen title : “Brave Days at Cambridge”. He was a student of Downings College, but resided in St. Edmund's House where he had the late Most Rev. Dr. McNulty, Bishop of Nottingham, as his friend and fellow-student. Fr. Gill's own interests were centred at this time on the problems of seismography, and he read a paper to the British Association in 1913 in which he put forward an ingenious theory to explain the distribution of earthquakes in time and space. He was also keenly interested in the development of Wireless Telegraphy - then in its initial stages - and was accustomed to give popular lectures in Dublin on this and kindred subjects. He attended many of the later annual meetings of the British Association, and was frequently invited to preach at some Catholic church during its sessions.
After his period at Cambridge Fr. Gill was sent to Tronchiennes in Belgium for his Tertianship. He was then stationed for three years in Belvedere, until he came to Rathfarnham Castle as its first Spiritual Father in 1913. A year later came the First Great War, and Fr. Gill. was one of the first to send in his name to Fr. Provincial as volunteering for wark as Army Chaptain. His offer was accepted, and he spent the next four years in the trenches of Flanders, with no more interruption. than the customary short leaves from active service. Those who remember his visits to Rathfarnham during these intervals will recall the impression of a man who seemed strangely ill-assorted with military life. Yet the plain truth is that both officers and men of the regiment to which he was attached (Second Battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles) were devoted to him, and the gallantry with which he responded to every claim on his services during those four grim years of trench warfare is attested by the double award of Military Cross and Distinguished Service Order. One officer who was with him throughout those four years and who was present at his funeral spoke with real emotion of his memories. “He seemed like a lost soul wherever you met him”, was his comment, “but he was always there when wanted, and was afraid of no man”. His unfailing sense of humour and his great gifts of companionship made him a special favourite with the officers mess. But, to the end of his days, he was in touch with some of the men who bad served under him, and their letters revealed the same genuine affection for their old ‘Padre’.
After the war Fr. Gill came to University Hall for five years, where he assisted Fr. George Roche and Fr. Wrafter in their work for the students of University College, and was also able to continue for a. time his former research-work. But his vitality had been much lessened by the long experience of the war-years, and he soon abandoned active research-work. . He went as Minister to Belvedere College in 1923. Here he spent the next seven years, and became a very loyal Belvederian. He was then transferred as Minister for one year to Rathfarnham Castle. The last change came in 1931, when he joined the Leeson Street Community as their Fr. Minister and later as Spiritual Father. For the last fourteen years of his life it is no exaggeration to say that Fr. Gill's kindly personality and the stimulus of his conversation made community life a joy to many of his brethren. He was also, for many years past, a regular contributor to Studies, The Irish Monthly and the Irish Ecclesiastical Record. His contributions to the latter were published in book form in two small volumes entitled “Jesuit Spirituality” (1935) and “Christianity in Daily Life” (1942), both of them full of his characteristic common sense. A selection of the many essays on scientific topics which he had contributed to Studies, Thought and the Irish Ecclesiastical Record was issued by Messers. Gill and Son in 1943 under the excellent title “Fact and Fiction in Modern Science”. It was at once most favourably received both in England and Ireland. In the United States the impression made was so remarkable that Fordham University. undertook to produce a special American edition of this work, which was issued some months before Fr. Gill's death. He also published in 1941 a short biography of the celebrated Jesuit physicist, Fr. Roger Boscovich, which was no more than a brief sketch of a more ambitious work which he had planned for some years past, but was unable to complete owing to his failing, health. May he rest in peace.
◆ James B Stephenson SJ Menologies 1973
Father Henry Gill 1872-1945
Fr Henry Gill was born at Roebuck House Dublin on July 8th 1872, son of HJ Gill, former Irish Party Member of Parliament, and head of the publishing firm, Gill’s O’Connell Street Dublin.
Henry was educated at Belvedere College and entered the Society in 1890, after a short period as a student at ‘6 St Stephen’s Green. In the course of his studies he displayed remarkable talent in science, and consequently, after his ordination, he was sent to Cambridge for tow years to study under Sir J Thompson.
On the outbreak of the First World War, he volunteered as a chaplain and served throughout the whole course. After the War he resided at University Hall for 5 years, and finally after various periods as Minister in various Houses, he settled down in Leeson Street for the rest of his life as Spiritual Father and writer.
He was a regular contributor to “Studies”, the “Irish Ecclesiastical Record” and the “Irish Monthly”. His published works include : “Jesuit Spirituality”, “Christianity in Daily Life”, “Fact and Fiction in Modern Science”. The latter book is still a favourite and enjoys a steady sale in the United States. He also published a biography of the celebrated Jesuit physicist Fr Boscovitch.
He died on November 27th 19456. He was a deeply religious man, with a remarkable sense of kindly humour, and his sayings at recreation and his stories are still recounted to the younger generation.
◆ The Belvederian, Dublin, 1946
Obituary
Father Henry Gill SJ
On Nov 27th, in St Vincent's Nursing Home, died very peacefully, Fr Henry Gill SJ. He was well known to many Belvederians and his passing means for them the loss of an esteemed friend.
From 1909-12 he was on the teaching staff here, and was also Director of the BVM Sodality. Then again from 1923-30 he was Minister, Director of the Sodality of the Holy Angels, and of the Conference of St Stanislaus. Those who were here during those years will well remember him for his kindly humour and deep spirituality.
A man of great gifts, and one who used them well and carefully, this quiet, unassuming man had a busy and an active life. After his earlier studies at Louvain, he studied at Cambridge from 1906-08, under Prof J J Thompson, at the Cavendish Laboratories.
Then came the Great War, and he was one of the first to volunteer as a chaplain. The war record of this quiet man will come as a revelation to many. He received, during these four years, the double award of DSO and MC, and his unfailing sense of humour and quiet gifts of companionship made him a special favourite with the men.
Still another side of his work was to be revealed in his later days - in his writings. He had been for many years quietly contributing to Studies, The Irish Monthly and The Irish Ecclesiastical Record. His contributions to the latter were published in book form in two small volumes entitled “Jesuit, Spirituality” (1935), and “Christianity in Daily Life” (1942), both of them full of his characteristic common sense. A selection of his many contributions on scientific subjects was issued in 1943 under the title, “Fact and Fiction in Modern Science”. Three days before his death, he corrected the final proofs of a small “Life of St. Joseph”. At the foot of the last page of these proofs he wrote in a hand that was shaky but still legible, - “St Joseph, patron of a Happy Death, pray for us”.
It was a fitting ending to a life which was to be crowned by a happy death. RIP
◆ The Clongownian, 1946
Obituary
Father Henry Gill SJ
Henry Gill was the second of the six sons of Mr H J Gill, JP, MA, head of the publishing firm of M H Gill & Son of Dublin. Katharine Tynan Hinkson wrote a delightful account of her friend Mrs Gill and of the family life at Roebuck House; it showed from what a good source was derived the charm which Fr Henry's many friends always found in him. All the boys went to Clongowes, and during the last two decades of the 19th century the name “Bottles” was in familiar and affectionate use; its origin, according to the legend, had something to do with the relation between a gill and a pottle, two antique measures of capacity which we were supposed to know something about.
Henry left Clongowes in 1889, and entered the novitiate at Tullabeg the following year, hating it but feeling he had to do it. Having to do it, he did it thoroughly, and after a very few years the stamp of the Society on him was unmistakeable. Fortunately, while it deepened the spiritual side of his character, it did not destroy or even diminish his exquisite sense of the comical, a source of continual surprise and delight to those he lived with.
After the usual round of studies and teaching, he was ordained at Milltown Park in 1906. During his studies he had shown particular aptitude for Physics, and as a Scholastic he read a paper (I think to the RDS), embodying the results of some ingenious research work. After his ordination he went to Cambridge, where he worked in the Cavendish Laboratory under J J Thomson and took his MA degree. It was the beginning of a new era in Physics, inaugurated chiefly by Thomson's theories and experiments. Fr Gill was profoundly interested, then and later, and his interest found expression in a number of articles in various journals. These articles formed the core of his book, “Fact and Fiction in Modern Science”, which appeared in 1943, and which was warmly received in England and America. An American edition was sponsored by Fordham University.
In 1913 he expounded to the British Association a new theory of the origin of earthquakes, which he supported by some very striking experiments. But in 1914, as soon as the war began, he offered his services as a chaplain, and served through the whole war. He was awarded the MC and the DSO, besides various foreign decorations; officers and men in the battalion to which he was attached testified to his heroic courage and devotion and his unfailing gaiety in the worst circumstances. I spoke to him once of this. He said: “Well, one made the offering of one's life at Mass in the morning, and then it didn't matter”. His deepest and most real interests were the eternal ones.
These interests found expression in his books, “Jesuit Spirituality”, “Christianity in Daily Life”, and “St Joseph”. This last was the theme of his meditation during the last two years of his life; indeed he finished it on his death-bed, and the invocation at the end, St Joseph, “patron. of a happy death, pray for us”,' was written by him just two days before he died, Death found him as cheerfully ready as life had always found him. May he rest in peace.
M F Egan SJ
◆ The Crescent : Limerick Jesuit Centenary Record 1859-1959
Bonum Certamen ... A Biographical Index of Former Members of the Limerick Jesuit Community
Father Henry Gill (1872-1945)
A native of Dublin and a member of the well-known publishing family, was educated at Clongowes and entered the Society in 1890. He pursued his higher studies at University College, Dublin, Louvain, and Milltown Park, where he was ordained in 1906, and Cambridge University. He spent one year of his regency at the Crescent, 1898-1899. Father Gill showed little aptitude for teaching in spite of his splendid intellectual gifts. He volunteered for a chaplaincy in the first world war and was many times decorated and mentioned in despatches. He wrote much on scientific subjects for learned reviews and was the author of three widely read spiritual books: Jesuit Spirituality, Christianity in Daily Life, St. Joseph.
◆ Woodstock Letters SJ : Vol 43, Number 1
“Varia: Father H V Gill on Earthquakes at the Birmingham Meeting of the British Association” p132
Among the communications contributed to the British Association a short while ago, was one by the Rev H V Gill SJ, of Dublin, who some years ago proposed a theory of earthquakes which attracted considerable attention. According to this view an earthquake taking place at any locality might under certain conditions occasion one or more succeeding disturbances at distant places within a few days. Father Gill was, it would appear, the first who took account of the rotation of the earth as an important factor in determining the connection between earthquakes, volcanoes and similar disturbances. He pointed out in his original paper the fact that the deflection of the earth's axis, giving rise to a “wobble” in the earth's rotation, would occasion a reaction tending to restore the earth once more to its state of equilibrium. He described several interesting experiments by means of which he demonstrated the fact that a rotating body containing matter which may shift its position will automatically rearrange its mass so as to preserve its equilibrium.
This theory was taken up by Milne and other scientists. Milne examined his records and discovered that a very considerable number of earthquakes obeyed this law, As a theory of this kind could only be proved by the examination of a large number of disturbances it was necessary to wait until further data were available. By last year the late Mr. Milne completed a tabulated catalogue of the great earthquakes taking place during the years 1899-1909, the locality and date of each earthquake being carefully indicated. In his paper Father Gill gives the result of an analysis of this table, and shows how the distri- bution of great earthquakes in time and space agrees well with the principle of the theory proposed by him.
◆ Woodstock Letters SJ : Vol 47, Number 2
“Varia: Ireland - Award of Distinguished Service Order” p262
Father Henry Vincent Gill, who has been a chaplain to the forces on the western battle front since the opening months of the Euro- pean war, has added to the previous award of the Military Cross the much rarer distinction of the Distinguished Service Order (DSO). Father Gill graduated at Cambridge a few years ago as an advanced student in Physical Science, following a two-years' course of research work at the Cavendish Laboratory there, under Sir J J Thomson, President of the Royal Society, and now Master of Trinity College, Cam- bridge. He subsequently proceeded to the degree of AM in that University. When Cardinal Bourne was elevated to the Sacred College, and subsequently visited the Catholic Hall at Cambridge, Sir J J Thomson attended the reception, and in his tribute to the value of the work of Catholic students there, singled out the research work of Father Gill at Cavendish Laboratory for its marked thoroughness and scientific distinction.
◆ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Gill_(Jesuit)#:~:text=Henry%20Gill%20S.J.%2C%20M.C.%2C%20D.S.O.,Dublin%2C%20on%208%20June%201872.
Henry Gill (Jesuit)
Henry Gill S.J., M.C., D.S.O., was an Irish Jesuit priest and scientist, who for four years served as a chaplain in the Great War. Fr. Gill earned the Military Cross, Distinguished Service Order, serving with the 2nd Royal Irish Rifles.[1] Henry Vincent Gill, was born in Cabra, Dublin, on 8 June 1872.[2] He was the son of Henry Joseph Gill former Irish Party MP and manager of the family M. H. Gill and Sons publishing company.
Henry was educated at the Jesuit Clongowes Wood College and in 1890 joined the Jesuits, first going to St Stanislaus College in Tullabeg, Co. Offally, then to Milltown Park, also studying Mathematics and Science at University College Dublin (Royal University of Ireland). He studied Philosophy at the Catholic University of Louvain, returned to Milltown to complete his clerical training in Theology, and was ordained in Milltown in 1906. He continued his studies in England with the famous Professor J. J. Thomson, Cavendish Laboratories, Cambridge from 1906 to 1908.[3] He conducted theoretical research into seismology which encouraged other Jesuits to pursue studies in the field.
He returned to Ireland and taught in Jesuit schools, such as Mungret College, Limerick, Belvedere College, Dublin, and Rathfarnam Castle.[4]
In 1914 just after the start of the First World War, he joined the 2nd Irish Rifles as a chaplain, serving for four years.[5] He wrote in the quarterly Irish Jesuits Studies Journal, campaigning trying to highlight interest with the Irish public, in the destruction of Belgium, particularly the Colleges in Louvain, which had a long connection with Ireland, by the German Army. As well as documenting the war in his diary and with his correspondence, he was a keen photographer; many of his photographs survive.[6]
Returning to Ireland he taught at the Jesuit Belvedere College.[3]
Fr Henry Gill died aged 73, on 27 November 1945.[citation needed]
Publications
H. Gill, Louvain and Ireland, Studies, September 1914, pp.292-95 at p.292.
H. Gill, The fate of the Irish flag at Ypres, Studies, March 1919, pp.119-128.
H. Gill, Fact of Fiction in Modern Science, 1943.
Henry V. Gill SJ MA MSc, Roger Boscovich (A short biography), M.H. Gill, 1941.[7]
References
The words of Father Henry Gill Voices 16, BBC, bbc.co.uk.
Gill, Henry V, 1872-1945, Jesuit priest, scientist and chaplain Jesuit Archives
Trenches…Hell…Biscuits: from the Rising to the battlefields of France, 1916 Inspiring Ireland.
Exhibition on Jesuit chaplains in World War I opens by Sarah Mac Donald, Catholic Ireland, November 15, 2017.
Irish Jesuit Chaplains: in the First World War edited by Damien Burke, Casemate publishers (2021)
John Bowman launches Jesuit Chaplains photography exhibition, News, Jesuits in Ireland, jesuits.ie, November 17, 2015.
Jesuit Contribution to Science: A History By Agustín Udías, Springer, 2014. ISBN 9783319083650
Henry Gill S.J., M.C., D.S.O.
Born 8 June 1872
Cabra, Dublin, Ireland
Died 27 November 1945
Nationality Irish
Education Clongowes Wood College, University College Dublin, Catholic University of Louvain
Alma mater Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy
Occupation(s) Jesuit Priest, Scientist
Known for Military service, Scientific contributions
Parent Henry Joseph Gill (father)
◆ https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/13K0c4JFvlDLRNZDFWmlRyt/father-henry-gill
Father Henry Gill
Catholic chaplain to the forces
Henry Gill was born on 8 July 1872. His father was Henry J Gill, owner of the printing and publishing company MH Gill & Son and an Irish MP who was strongly in favour of Home Rule.
After studying at Clongowes Wood College in Kildare, Henry did not go into the family business or enter politics but instead pursued a career as a Jesuit priest.
Gaining entry to the Society of Jesus in December 1889, Henry began his novitiate at St Stanislaus College, Tullamore, in April 1890.
After two years in Tullamore, Henry continued his training and preparation in Milltown Park, teaching there while also attending lectures in mathematics and science at University College Dublin
Love of Louvain
Henry went back to Milltown Park in 1903 to study theology and was subsequently ordained there by the Archbishop of Dublin.
In 1908, he went to Cambridge University's Cavendish Laboratory to study under the tutelage of the Nobel Prize winning physicist, Professor J J Thomson.
Spiritual Father
Father Gill returned to Dublin in 1910 to resume teaching at Belvedere College, before becoming the first Spiritual Father at Rathfarnham Castle.
Within a fortnight of the outbreak of war in August 1914, he offered his services as a chaplain to the Army.
Belgian brotherhood
While Father Gill's motivation for offering his services are not certain (the Catholic hierarchy in Ireland was at the time calling for more chaplains at the front), he was unquestionably deeply affected by the German destruction of Louvain.
"Louvain is destroyed - destroyed by an act of ruthless soldiery. Could any cause, could any excuse, we ask ourselves, justify such a deed?"
"...we are proud to stand by the side of Belgium in her struggle against an unjust aggression which Ireland can but too well sympathise with."
Father at the front
Father Gill was appointed to the regular 2nd Irish Rifles - a battalion made up largely of Catholic recruits, many hailing from the north-east of Ireland.
He went to the front in November 1914 and would remain there for over 1300 days.
World War One
A Chaplain's work
What Fr Gill witnessed during the war bore little resemblance to his life before he landed in France. "... I had, of course, no experience whatever of the kind of work I had before me."
He later wrote in his memoirs that he "... was always sent for at any hour of the night when a man seemed to be in danger of death ... On many occasions I accompanied Medical Officers on their rounds to collect the wounded at the various Regimental Aid Posts ... I have often given the last Sacraments to men in these places. The whole surroundings were uncanny. The dark road ran parallel to the trenches; bullets constantly whistled past. Not a light could be seen ..."
"During war one's nerves are sorely tried, and it is only by the strictest self control and the absolute shutting out of all that concerns the sentimental and pathetic side of the surroundings that it is possible to keep going on. (I have no doubt that this constant strain, accompanied by the necessary suppression must leave its mark for many years after)."
Visit from Redmond
"Friday. Nov. 19. Mass at 7.30. The event of the day was an inspection by Mr J Redmond. He arrived about 3.0 pm with Div General Doran, and his son and private secretary. He made a speech to the men."
"He was glad to meet a regiment which contained men of every creed from different places in Ireland, especially the North. They were now brothers in arms and he was sure their harmony and unity in the great cause in which they were fighting was a happy omen of the relations which would exist between all in Ireland after the war."
1916 opens ominously
The tumultuous year of 1916 began in dramatic fashion for Fr Gill, as he described in a letter written on 4 January.
"Yesterday I came down from the front trenches just yards from the Germans, when all was fairly quiet, except for shells passing over, and found the village where we 'rest' being shelled. Several men killed and many wounded just as I arrived. One does not get used to men being killed close by."
Easter Rising
News from Ireland over Easter reached those fighting in France. In a letter to his Fr Provincial on 3 May, in the wake of the surrender of the rebels on 30 April, Fr Gill wrote:
"We cannot think of anything else than the terrible things which have been going on in Dublin. Please God it is over now and that the authorities will use – as I am sure they will – tact in dealing with it. We only see the accounts in English, and French, newspapers. I hope none of our people have suffered in the affair. Nothing has affected Irishmen out here more than this."
Writing on 24 June, as more information had filtered through to those on the front lines of World War One, he wrote:
"I do hope things in Ireland will soon settle down. I think everyone must admit – no matter what their sympathies – that 'England has asked for trouble'. The thing which annoys me is the suggestion that we out here are unpatriotic."
The Somme
1 July
As the Battle of the Somme began on 1 July 1916, the plan had been for Fr Gill's regiment to followed the 36th (Ulster) Division once they had helped break through the German defences.
"Evidently something had gone wrong ... We were originally to have followed on after the Ulster Division, and then to have gone through them to our objective which was Courcelette. But that Division apparently through no fault of their own failed to take the position of Thiepval ..."
Move to the frontline
Even behind the lines, the situation was fraught with danger. On 3 July, the 2nd RIR lost another of their priests, Fr O'Sullivan, in a shelling. Fr Gill was unable to attend his colleague's internment. "We were in the thick of an attack when the funeral took place."
It was only a few days later that Fr Gill's turn in the frontline trenches came, on 6 July 1916.
"As we approached the line the roar of the guns became louder, and our own guns made the horses start as they fired on all sides of us."
The 'ordinary horrors' of war
It would be impossible to detail the particulars of the many attacks which took place during the following days. We pushed on the line by the aid of bombs, bayonets and artillery several kilometres, captured many Germans, and killed many more. There was little or no sleep for anyone that night. The next day it began to rain. Soon the ordinary horrors of this kind of fighting were augmented by the indescribable mud and squalor which torrents of rain produced in the trenches."
"It was necessary to harden one's heart. Many of these poor wounded fellows had to lie in the bottom of the main trench for hours in the rain and mud, with a waterproof sheet thrown over them."
"Further up the trenches which had just been won from the enemy other sights were to be seen. Many German dead lay in the trenches in every position, and amongst many of our own."
"Towards the end of this tour in the trenches the heavy rain stopped and the mud gradually dried up. The Somme mud is white chalk, and in the process of drying became a thick putty which made walking very fatiguing. When the Battalion came back to rest for a few days at Senlis there were only half the original number that went into the trenches."
After the Somme
A great strain
The last months of the Battle of the Somme were not quite so dramatic for Fr Gill. Although his regiment "were rushed suddenly from one position to another, and in general had a very strenuous time", they did not experience losses comparable to the first few weeks of July.
Nonetheless, in a letter to his Fr Provincial on 12 September 1916, Fr Gill made clear the toll the war was taking on him: "Of course the past two years have been a great strain, and I am really tired out body and spirit ... I find it an effort to get about – a person of 30 is more fitted for this work than one of 43-44."
Joining the 36th (Ulster) Division
Fr Gill had not been particularly enamoured with the 36th (Ulster) Division when their paths had crossed earlier in the war. In his memoirs, he wrote that "charity forbids me to narrate the memories their name inspired."
When word came in September 1917 that the depleted 2nd Royal Irish Rifles were to be transferred into the equally depleted 36th, Fr Gill described it as "bad news".
Return to Dublin
It was to be early 1919 before Fr Gill returned home to Dublin. He remained in the city for the rest of his life, continuing his role as a Jesuit priest while also resuming his teaching at Belvedere College.
Fr Henry Gill died on 27 November 1945, of liver cancer, aged 73.
