John and Christopher Sheehan

Privates John and Christopher Sheehan – Welsh Regiment – Brothers Buried Side by Side

Early Life

John Sheehan was born in 1884, and his younger brother Christopher Sheehan was born in 1887. They were the sons of Patrick and Catherine Sheehan, both originally from Ireland.

1891 Census

At the time of the 1891 Census, Catherine, then 32 and recorded as a widow, was living as a boarder at 15 Shore Street, in the household of Cornelius Harrington. She was accompanied by her three children: John, 7; Christopher, 4; and Sarah, 3, all of whom were attending school.

1901 Census

By the 1901 Census, Catherine had remarried, becoming the wife of Michael Dewit, a 43-year-old fuel labourer. The family was living at 10 Pontyglasdwr Street. Catherine, now 42, had her three Sheehan children still at home: John, 17, employed as a general labourer; Sarah, 13; and Christopher, 10. Also living in the house were three lodgers: Ellen Casey, 23, a charwoman; Edward Casey, 19, a general labourer; and Eleanor Casey, aged 8.

There are no surviving records of John and Christopher in the 1911 Census, leaving a gap in their early adult lives.

Military Service – Christopher Sheehan

Christopher Sheehan
Attestation Papers

Christopher was the first of the brothers to enlist. On 8^th September 1914, he joined the Welsh Regiment, 51^st Battalion. His surviving attestation papers record that he was discharged only 24 days later, in October 1914, after being declared medically unfit for further service.

Army Register of Soldiers' Effects

Despite never serving overseas, Christopher’s name appears in the Army Register of Soldiers’ Effects, which records his death in Gorseinon on 27^th December 1915, aged 28. He became the first of the Sheehan brothers to die.

Military Service – John Sheehan

John Sheehan
Attestation Papers

John enlisted shortly after his brother, on 7^th December 1914, joining the Welsh Regiment, 6^th Battalion. At the time of his enlistment, his home address was given as 5 Lower Strand.

John’s service record indicates that most of his service was spent in the United Kingdom, with just 50 days of active service in France. He survived nearly three years of wartime service before his death on 12^th August 1917, aged 33.

Burial

Christopher Sheehan & John Sheehan
Danygraig Cemetery
credit - findagrave

Both John and Christopher Sheehan were laid to rest at Danygraig Cemetery, Swansea, buried side by side.

Legacy

The Sheehan brothers’ graves stand as a powerful reminder of the impact of the First World War on Swansea families. Christopher’s short-lived attempt at military service and his early death in 1915, followed by John’s loss in 1917, meant that Catherine Sheehan — once a widowed mother raising three young children in poverty — lived to see both of her sons buried together.

Their side-by-side resting place at Danygraig Cemetery reflects the shared sacrifice of brothers who, though their service experiences were very different, both became part of Swansea’s story of wartime loss.