Lieutenant W.H. O'Keeffe

Regiment: Royal Field Artillery
Date published: 29/06/1917
Killed in action: Yes
Date of death: 19/05/1917
Age at death: 20
Cemetery: Faubourg D'amiens Cemetery, Arras, Pas de Calais, France
Plot: V. F. 10.
Information: Lieutenant W.H. O'Keefe, Royal Field Artillery, who was killed in action on May 19th, 1917 was the second son of Mr. and Mrs. O'Keefe, Faythe House, Wexford. He was educated at Castleknock College, and subsequently studied at the Royal College of Science, Dublin, with a view to entering the engineering profession. On the outbreak of the war he obtained a commission in the R.F.A. In August, 1915, he went on active service. Additional Info: He is commemorated in a stained glass window in the Church of the Assumption in Wexford town by Harry Clarke. The window was commissioned by Matilda O'Keefe in remembrance of her son, Lieutenant William O'Keefe, 40th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, who was killed in action in France, May 19th, 1917 at the age of 21. William was killed during the Battle of Arras when a stray German shell hit the officers mess he was in just after breakfast that day, and he is buried at Faubourg D'Amiens Cemetery, Arras, France. The O'Keefe's were a corn merchants, living at Faythe House in the Wexford town, not far from the church. The window was was set in place in 1919.