Background
Kilkeary was born in what is now Birr, County Offaly (then Parsonstown, King"s County).
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Bernard Kilkeary
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He joined the British Army as a youth, serving in the 73rd (Perthshire) Regiment of Foot. He was one of the few survivors of the Birkenhead which went down at two o"clock in the morning on 28 February 1852. Twelve hours later, they themselves were rescued by the schooner, Lioness, of Cape Town.
Kilkeary spent thirty-two years as a soldier, all but two in non-commissioned ranks.
He was a colour Sergeant with the 73rd, which he served with for twelve years and two hundred and one days. The remaining twenty years he spent in the Auxiliarys, his last corps being the Mid Ulster Artillery, of which he was the Paymaster Sergeant.
His active service included the 1852-1853 Kaffir War, the battle of Berea and the Indian Mutiny. As of 1902, he was residing at Dungannon, County Tyrone.
