Hello Nivard I have been on this mailing list for a few years and your replies are always responsive, helpful & insightful.Thanks, I am sure from many. Irish connection - Michael Brady appears on the 1851 census in Nottingham with his wife Elizabeth, & teenage children Elizabeth, Mary & James, all shown as born in Ireland.By 1861 Michael is widowed, in the workhouse where he dies in 1863.Son James has been married, is widowed, has a daughter, is living in Leeds with cousins where his daughter dies later that year.Elizabeth was married in 1852 but in 1860 had a daughter with someone else.Daughter Mary has a son John in 1857 and John is shown living with his Uncle James over the next 50 years.In 1867 James again marries, to a Leeds girl Annie Bishop who is 10 years his junior.These are my g-g-grandparents. On the 1861 census Michael’s record in the workhouse shows him as born in Meath.I have not been able to identify anything of the family in Ireland.On the records there are 12 Michael Brady’s baptized in Ireland 1795 – 1805, yet there are shown to be 61 deaths of Michael Brady’s that were born in this 10 year period.This indicates only 20% of the birth records still exist, so I gave up about then, having tried in vain for a fair while trying to identify any Irish connection. After all that irrelevance, I suppose the real question was "were they Catholic", yes they were, so joining the Irish Battalion for religious comfort may have been the reason. Arthur was James’ 2^nd son, born in 1875.In 1911 he is boarding with Maria Lamb, who he marries in December 1915.It does appear that she remarries to Robert Morris in 1920. There were a total of 132 deaths in Mazingarbe between 1 July & 31 August, with Arthur being the only member of the Royal Irish Regiment buried in there.Arthur’s death is noted as being due to an accident. Makes sense given the regiment was never stationed in Mazingarbe. I have been unable to identify any enlistment or other records (except the medal records), for Arthur.I think I read somewhere the records were destroyed in WW2.For the War Diaries I have not thought to check them.Unfortunately I no longer have an ancestry subscription so will check them in the library tomorrow. Again, thanks, it is appreciated Glenn Thorpe