With much of Dublin’s memory of the First World War focused on the 7th Royal Dublins Fusiliers at Gallipoli in August 1915, the central role of so many more Dubliners in the first days of fighting in August 1914, and in the rest of that year, has been neglected. There is a substantial story to tell of those regular soldiers and reservists, from the Battle of Mons and the subsequent retreat, via the First Battle of Ypres to the solidifying of the trench lines by the end of the year. Yet even before there was fighting on the Western Front, maritime Dubliners felt the effects of the war. Merchant sailors in Hamburg on four steamers were detained as war was declared. In 1918, many were still held in Germany.2 Then when war death came to Dublin, the British Empire’s second city shared in its very first losses. They came at sea more than a week before the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) arrived on the continent.