On this day in 1960, Company Sergeant Felix Grant from Clonmel Barracks died in the Congo. He therefore became the first member of the Irish Defence Forces to die on active UN service.
Grant was deployed to the Congo on 19 August 1960 and during the last few days of September, he was ill but remained on duty. On Saturday 1 October, he was overcome with severe pain in his stomach and he was evacuated by aircraft from Manon to Albertville. He was operated on for appendicitis but he died on Monday October 3, 1960. His remains were repatriated to Clonmel shortly afterwards. His funeral mass took place on 26 October 1960 at the Garrison church at Kickham Barracks and he is buried in St Patrick’s Cemetery.
Although a County Down man by birth, Grant had been based in Clonmel barracks for many years. He married Catherine Lillis in Clonmel in 1945 and they had three children.
Grant was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Medal with Merit, the citation reads:
“for distinguished service with the United Nations Force in the Republic of the Congo, for devotion to duty and zeal of a high order. He continued to discharge his duties in an exemplary and devoted manner although suffering from an illness which eventually caused his death.”
Sources:
https://iunva.ie/death-overseas-cs-felix-grant-03-10-1960-congo/
