The 2nd Royal Dublin Fusiliers took part in the Battle of Mons, which opened on Sunday 23 August 1914 when the Dublin Fusiliers were part of a larger contingent of British army personnel positioned between the Belgium towns of Mons and Conde. The Germans attacked and surrounded the Fusiliers, capturing many of them before the British began to retreat. Among those captured in that first month of the war were three Athy men Michael Bowden, Martin Maher and Michael Byrne. All three were to die while prisoners of war
Died in Limburg before the end of the war. A photograph of Michael Bowden and John Byrne (his brother in law) taken while they were prisoners in Limburg was printed in the Saturday Herald of 10 June 1916.
Michael Bowden, an Athy postman who had enlisted in Carlow, left behind his wife and child when he went to the war front. Another child was born a few months after he departed for France and he spent almost four years in Limburg Prisoner of War Camp before dying on 27 May 1918.