Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command of The Royal Canadian Legion www.ns.legion.ca 93 Editor’s note: This story is submitted by our current NS/NU Command President, Comrade Marion Fryday-Cook. This is the story of my Great Uncle Neville. Much of the tale has been put together after many years of research. Ironically, Neville was an Irishman wearing a British uniform in the streets of Dublin in the early hours of the Irish Uprising. This certainly was the reason for Uncle Neville’s untimely death at age 16. He is listed as the youngest Empire casualty of the Rising. Neville Nicholas Fryday was born September 3, 1899 in Ballydoe, County Tipperary, Ireland and immigrated to Toronto, Ontario, Canada with his mother and several brothers and sisters in October of 1910. When the war broke out in 1914, Neville’s brother Henry enlisted and by the next summer, two more Fryday boys decided to join their brother. William and Neville signed up in Toronto, Canada in July, 1915. At this point Neville was 15 years old and had lied on his attestation papers. The 1901 Census of Ireland recorded Neville as 2 years of age. Neville joined the Canadian Infantry (Central Ontario Regiment) 75th Battalion with William and they embarked Canada from Halifax, Nova Scotia on March 29, 1916 on the RMS Empress of Britain. They arrived in Liverpool, England on April 9, 1916. The two young brothers were anxious to be sent to the battlefields of Europe. Shortly after their arrival in England, Neville and William’s Battalion was sent to Dublin, Ireland to help to quell the unrest in that country. On April 30, 1916, Neville visited his mother, who had returned to Ireland and was residing once again in Dublin with his younger brothers and sisters. After their reunion, Pvt. Fryday was walking down Sackville Street (now O’Connell Street) when shots were fired and the Easter Uprising had begun near the General Post Office. He was quickly enlisted to stand guard in the front of the Trinity College to protect the students where he was shot by a sniper and was severely wounded. Neville was taken to the Mercers Hospital where he succumbed from his injuries. He is buried in the Mount Jerome Cemetery in Dublin, Ireland. Pvt. Fryday was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal 1914-1919. Private Neville Nicholas Fryday
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