Major Willie Redmond was an ardent nationalist M.P. who sat in Westminster alongside his brother John for 34 years from 1883-1917. While they shared their political sympathies, Willie and his brother had very different personalities. A political contemporary once wrote ‘I have never seen two men more absolutely dissimilar’. John Redmond was ‘silent, reserved, calculating and consistent’, whereas Willie was ‘conversational, spontaneous and impulsive in policy’.

Willie Redmond was commissioned as a captain in the 6th battalion of the Royal Irish regiment in February 1915 and promoted to the rank of Major in late 1916. On 7 June 1917 Willie took part in an attack on Messines Ridge. He was wounded in the arm and leg by shell fire shortly after leaving the trenches and died of his wounds that evening at Dranoutre, near Locre. He was buried in the garden of the convent at Locre Hospice, Belguim.

Mayor of Wexford Nicholas Byrne Memorial committee September 1917. Locre Hospice, Belguim.