The Military Graveyard

The Military Graveyard is located next to the Fermoy Soccer Club grounds. When you enter the Soccer Club gates, the Graveyard is directly at the top of the driveway through a metal gate. Adjacent to the Military Graveyard is the Famine Graveyard which displays a large respectable cross surrounded number of white crosses to make the graves of those who died in the Great Famine of the 1840s. Buried in the Military Graveyard is the one of the most popular men in Fermoy military history and in the Durham light infantry is Jimmy Durham. Jimmy was born in Sudan in 1885 where his Father and Mother were both killed. When the Durhams found him at a young age they named him Jimmy Durham. The soldiers grew very fond of Jimmy as he grew older. Especially Sergeant Stuart, who treated him almost like a son. When Jimmy reached the age of 14, he enlisted in the regiment as a bandman. He moved with the battalion to Fermoy in 1905 where he married a girl named Jane Green. At the time in Fermoy the sight of a young black man aroused considerable curiosity and interest. He featured in several contemporary articles including one which appeared in the military magazine The Bulge on June 14th 1894. Jimmy died of pneumonia in August 1910 and was laid to rest in the Military Graveyard Fermoy where his headstone is the only white marble one in the spread of grey and brown ones.