BALLYMENA 1914-1918
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Cairncastle, near Larne, Co Antrim, cannot be considered to be within the Ballymena ambit but I had these names and felt they should be put online because no-one else has made them available. I hope someone will find the material helpful.
Cairncastle Presbyterian Church
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© Kenneth Allen - geograph.org.uk/p/428630
65594 Private James Brown of the 2nd Bn, Otago Regiment, NZEF was killed in action on 2nd September 1918. He was the 2nd son of James Brown, Corkermain(e), Cairncastle, and his wife Margaret (Maggie). The 1901 Irish census shows the family there. James Brown, 60 and a farmer, and his wife Margaret (51) listed William (22), James (21), Aggie Jane (19), John (18 and a coachbuilder), Hugh (15), Maggie (14) and Thomas (11) as present on census day.
In 1911 James (70) and his wife Maggie (62) said they had been married for 35 years, and that they had had nine children. Eight were still alive in 1911 and the couple listed William M (31), Agnes Jane (27), Maggie (24) and Robert (18) as present on census day.
James Brown, who said he was born on the 20 February 1879, had been farming in New Zealand for seven/eight years and had his own farm at Otangiwai, Taumarunui, North Island. He enlisted on the 28 July 1917 and his records show that he was 5’ 6 ¼ “ tall with hazel eyes and black hair. He trained in New Zealand until the 30 December 1917.
He went overseas aboard HMNZT 99, Athenic, on the 31 December 1917 from Wellington, disembarked in Glasgow, and marched into No 4 Camp, Larkhall, Salisbury Plain on the 26 February 1918. He moved to Sling Camp on the 6 April and went to France in May 1918. He served for a time with the 2nd Entrenching Battalion but moved to the 4th Company, 2nd Otago Battalion on the 28 August 1918. His military career was very short and he was killed in action on the 2 September 1918.
His grave is II. C. 19 in Bancourt British Cemetery. It is located 4 Km east of Bapaume, and it is likely that he died in the 2nd battle of Bapaume, 21 August-3 September. This was the second phase of the battle of Amiens, the British offensive often taken to be the turning point of the First World War on the Western Front.
The town of Bapaume actually fell into the hands of 'the superb New Zealand Division’, as stated in 1918 Year of Victory, The end of the Great War and the shaping of history, edited by Ashley Ekins, on 29 August 1918, and as also stated, The Times pointed out that capturing Bapaume was 'an honour'. . . that the New Zealand Division ‘had well-earned’. However, there were to be four additional days of hard fighting to wrestle the area around the town from the Germans, and this was when Brown was killed.
The New Zealanders had to capture the villages of Bancourt and Fremicourt and then drive the Germans from the the Bancourt Ridge that lay about 700 metres east of both villages. The Germans fought furiously to keep every inch of the ground they still held and twice counter-attacked. One of these counter-attacks was led by tanks, another crushed only when artillery batteries kept up a relentless fire on the advancing ranks. Only on the evening of 2 September did the resistance finally come to an end and thereafter the exhausted and dispirited Germans began to surrender. 'Bloody Bapaume', as it is sometimes called, was finally over.
The New Zealand front line was then over 20 miles east of Hebuterne from where it had been ten days earlier. Historians now think over 800 New Zealanders were killed in this action and 2300 + were wounded. The battle of Bapaume was, therefore, a very significant action for New Zealand troops, one of their bloodiest engagements on the Western Front.
Brown’s only
visit home had been early in May 1918. He was survived by two brothers
in New Zealand and two on active service with the New Zealand Force.
Credits:: Transport Column -14-9-18
New Zealand Battalion transport passing through recaptured Bapaume, World War I. Royal New Zealand Returned and Services' Association :New Zealand official negatives, World War 1914-1918. Ref: 1/2-013609-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/22358132
The 9th Battalion, were part of the 48th Brigade, 16th Division and were involved in the Flanders Offensive (3rd Battle of Ypres) from 7th June - 10th November 1917 and it was presumably something that happened on that battlefield that led to infection and his demise. The pain of his death was made worse for Mrs Clarke as her husband, the Rev. S B Clarke, had died on the 1 July 1915.
Chief Engineer William Crawford, Mercantile Marine, died on Wednesday, March 13, 1918 and aged 42 when the SS Castlebar (Belfast) was lost. According to Lloyd's War Losses, SS Castlebar was going from Glasgow to Limerick with a cargo of wheat and she was reported to have passed Fanad Head on 14 March. She was never seen again and was presumed lost with all hands in Lough Swilly, Ireland. She was listed as missing on 7 August 1918. This information is contained within 'Missing and untraced merchant vessels' in Lloyd's.
There is no proof she was a victim of a U-boat or mine and it is possible she was lost in bad weather or by accident. There were no survivors to say what happened and it is not known why the crew were deemed to have died on the 13th March when the ship supposedly passed Fanad Head on the 14th March. She had been built in 1895 by Mackie & Thomson and owned by W. M. Barkley & Sons.
William Crawford was the son of William Crawford, and the husband of Jane Hunter, later of Fourscore Acre, Cairncastle, Larne. The couple, both from Cairncastle, had married in 1st Carrickfergus Presbyterian Church on the 26th October 1907. William was born at Carnlough, Co. Antrim.
11090 Private John Crawford Moore, son of Mary Moore, of 123, Dumbarton Rd., Glasgow, and the late William Moore, was born at Cairncastle, Co. Antrim, and died aged 30 while serving with the 2nd Battalion, Hampshire Regiment.
2nd Battalion, Hampshire Regiment were in Mhow, India when war broke out in August 1914 but were immediately sent to England. They were training for service in France and Flanders when orders changed and they were hurried to Gallipoli. They left from Avonmouth on the 29th of March 1915, the whole division reviewed by the King, before W and X Companies sailed aboard the HMT Aragon, Y and Z Companies aboard the HMT Manitou. They went via Malta to Alexandria, reached Mudros in April. They subsequently transferred to the steamer River Clyde and landed at Cape Helles, Gallipoli on the 25 April 1915. They were involved in heavy fighting until the evacuation on the nights of the 7th and 8th of January 1916 when they returned to Egypt. John Crawford Moore died early in their struggle on the 8 May 1915 and he is commemorated in Cairo War Memorial Cemetery.
Private Robert James Stewart, Canterbury Infantry Regiment (NZEF), Ballyhacket Cairncastle Antrim
Photograph from Larne Times and by courtesy of Nigel Henderson.
John Stewart, Ballyhackett, Cairncastle, son of Robert, had married Agnes White (aged 19), Little Deer Park, Glenarm, daughter of Benjamin, in Glenarm Presbyterian Church on the 4 March 1879. The 1901 Irish census records John (46) and Agnes (42) at Ballyhackett with nine children. Benjamin (21-6/1/80), Lizzie (18-28/11/82), Robert J (16-1/2/1885), John M (13-19/2/88), Sam Mc (10-25/4/90), Sarah J(ane) (8-19/4/92 ), Agnes W(hite) (6-5/8/94), Joseph K (4-17/9/96) and Thomas (2-7/9/98) were listed on the day of the census.
The 1911 census records the family in the same place and John (56) and Agnes (54) state that they had been married for 32 years and that they had had 12 children; 9 were still alive in 1911.
Robert Stewart enlisted on the 3 January 1917, stating that he was born on the 1 February 1885. He said he had been in NZ for two years and that he was an orchardist employed by Tasman Fruit Lands at Nelson. He was described then as being 5’ 8” and as having blue eyes and fair hair. He nominated his father at Ballyhackett, Cairncastle as his next of kin and also gave the name of his brother, John M Stewart, Tasman, Nelson, NZ.
He had left NZ on the 2 April 1917 aboard HMNZT 80, ‘Corinthic’, from Wellington and disembarked at Devonport/Plymouth, England on the 10 June. He completed training at Sling Camp and went to France and Flanders after 6 July 1917. He was at Etaples on the 9th and was sent to 12th Company, 3rd Canterbury Regiment, 4th NZ Infantry Brigade. He was slightly wounded, probably by gas, and treated in France by No 4 NZ Field Ambulance from the 9th - 20th October. He rejoined his unit on the 25 October and his short military career ended when he was killed in action on the 21st November 1917. He is buried in Buttes New British Cemetery (NZ), Polygon Wood.
The History of the Canterbury Regiment, N.Z.E.F. 1914 - 1919, Chapter XII, The Polygon Wood Sector and the Polderhoek Chateau Attack, author Captain David Ferguson, published by Whitcombe and Tombs Limited, 1921, Auckland gives some insight into the circumstances in which Stewart’s death occurred. It says,
On the night of November 14th/15th, the 3rd Wellington and Auckland Battalions of the 4th Brigade relieved the 110th Brigade in the left of the Divisional sector, having the 49th Division on their left; and on the 16th the 3rd Canterbury Battalion, in reserve, took over from the 6th Battalion Leicestershire Regiment the Railway Dug-outs in the embankment of the Ypres-Menin railway line, just east of where it crosses the Ypres-Messines road. On the night of the 21st/22nd, the (3rd) battalion relieved the 3rd Auckland Battalion in the left of the brigade sector, with its right flank at the ruined buildings called Joiner's Best. The trenches were incomplete and unprotected by wire; but before the battalion was relieved it had completed both front line and support trenches, and wired with a single belt the whole of its frontage.
It looks as if Stewart may have been killed during the relief on the night of the 21/22 November.
Positive ID - from the military record of 6303 James Crawford
James Crawford papers record him as being 5’ 9” tall and having grey eyes and dark brown hair. He was then nearly 31 years old and said he had been born on the 21 January 1886 - local records say 23 January 1886 and that his mother was Jane Craig. He was a single Presbyterian and was then apparently living at Ingham, Queensland.
He left Sydney aboard the HMAT Demosthenes on the 22 January 1916 and he arrived in Plymouth on the 3 March 1917. He went to the camp at Rollestone and the 7th Training Battalion before eventually going to Le Havre, France on the 20 June 1917. He transferred to the 25th Battalion on the 9 July and was gassed while serving with them on the 9 November 1917. He wasn’t too badly affected and remained in France, passing through 17 Casualty Clearing Station, 1st General Hospital, No 6 and No 5 Convalescent Depots before rejoining his battalion on the 5 February 1918. He was with them only a short time when he was killed in action on the 10 June 1918.
The operation in which he was killed is described thus in the unit war diary:
The 7th Australian Infantry Brigade will ... capture enemy position between SAILLY LAURETTE and MORLANCOURT. The 4th Division is advancing its flank and the 6th Brigade will carry out two raids in co-operation. The 27th ... will attack on our (i.e. the 25th Battalion) right and 28th Battalion on our left. The 26th... Battalion will be in reserve.
The operation went well.
At Zero (9.45 pm) the men left the trench and advanced in a good line with touch on both flanks following the barrage at about 75 yards distance. Considerable enemy Machine Gun fire was encountered immediately but practically no enemy shelling. The advance regulated by our barrage was too slow. Mopping up parties carried out their work well and very few cases of our men being shot from behind were recorded. The success signal was fired at 10.50 pm...
However there were problems with the artillery barrage that gave cover during the attack.
A number of guns ... were firing short consistently and caused a good number of casualties to attacking troops. ... The rate of travelling of barrage was generally considered to be too slow as troops had to wait for it several times suffering casualties from enemy Machine Guns.
After a period of recuperation Dale joined the Naval Auxiliary Service. He was serving in the Merchant Marine as 2nd Mate on torpedoed SS Hungerford. Although he managed to get away in a small boat, Dale is believed to have died from exposure. He was the only son of John Dale and the late Mrs Dale of Drains Bay, Cairncastle, Larne. He is buried in Haslar Royal Naval Cemetery.
SS Hungerford had been built in Bremen, Germany in 1913 and was owned at the time of her sinking by The Shipping Controller (G. Heyn & Sons). On April 16th, 1918, SS Hungerford was on a voyage from Havre to New York in ballast when she was sunk by the German submarine UC-75, commander Walter Schmitz.
Eight lives were lost. They were: John McClure Dale, (26), Second Mate; Percy Brown (28), Greaser; James Thomas Clark (36), Fireman and Trimmer; W Hitchings, Fireman; Thomas Jenkins (27), Greaser; Joseph Martin (39), Leading Seaman (no. 7648A); Donald Victor McFarlane (25), Third Engineer (He was born at Lanark and was the husband of May McFarlane (nee Booth), of Cumberland Hotel, 11, Dock St., Belfast.); and Alfred James Rice (26), Junior Second Engineer Officer. Rice was the son of Laurence and Agnes Rice (formerly Edmonds), of 107, Ogilvie St., Belfast and had been born at Newtownards, Co. Down.
T Moore appears on the Larne Grammar School memorial tablet and is unknown there, and Thomas Moore is remembered on the Cairncastle Presbyterian memorial tablet. There is no easy explanation of who he was but a clue may lie in the 1911 Irish census return of James Moore, publican, of Ballygalley, Cairncastle. He indicates on his 1911 return that his nephew, Thomas Moore from Belfast, was residing with him, and he was a 13-year-old scholar, presumably the T Moore recorded on the at Larne Grammar School tablet.
The Thomas Moore pictured above, originally 15/12084 or 12084, is 12084 of the 1st Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles who was killed on the 31 January 1916. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission record unfortunately gives no details of his parents or his age. However, his photograph appeared in the Larne Times and the caption tells us his father was William Moore, 206, Oldpark Road, Belfast.
An announcement of his death was also provided in the Belfast press, notably the Belfast News Letter. Their entry of the 10th February 1916 reads, ‘Mr William Moore, 206, Oldpark Road, Belfast, has received intimation that his eldest son, Rifleman Thomas Moore, 15th (North Belfast) Battalion Royal Irish Rifles, was killed in action in France on 31st January. Rifleman Moore, who was only 19, was struck by a piece of shrapnel on the head. His father is the sexton of St Silas’s Parish Church, Oldpark Road.’
His age fits exactly with that of the 13-year-old on the 1911 census return and it is highly probable that this man in the photograph is Cairncastle’s Thomas Moore.
Further, the 1918 Belfast Street Directory records William Moore, his father, at house '206 - Moore, Wm., linen lapper' and then notes 'St. Silas' Church - Rector, Rev. F. W. W. Warren, B.A.; res., The Hermitage, Cardigan Drive; sexton, Wm. Moore, 206 Oldpark Road'.
Thomas Moore (senior), still living 16, Ballymena Street, Belfast, died on 6th June 1898 and Jane was left a widow with an infant son. She appears to have left Belfast and come to Ballymena.
The 1901 Irish census return records widow Jane Moore, aged 25 years and a housekeeper, living with William Service, aged 61 years, at Castle Street, Ballymena. Thomas Service Moore, described as a grandson and Presbyterian, was also listed. He was said, problematically, to have been born in Co Down.
William Service of Castle Street, Ballymena, died aged 69 years on the 9th September 1908, his grand-daughter in attendance ... and there the trail fades. Jane Service cannot be traced - perhaps she remarried - and we cannot be sure it was her son who then went to Cairncastle. Certainly a Thomas Moore, then a 13 year old Presbyterian scholar and nephew, appears in the 1911 census return of James Moore – see above.
Private Hugh Steele, 8 Battalion, Royal Irish Fusiliers
Photograph from the Larne Times, June 1916 and by courtesy of Nigel Henderson.
Thomas Steele, a widower of Sallagh, Cairncastle, had married Margaret Ann Wray or Rea of Ballyligpatrick, Broughshane in Buckna Presbyterian Church on the 27th February 1888. His first wife, Jane Woods, had died in 1887 and the couple had had a son, James, on the 6 June that year. It is not known if there were other children of the first marriage.
Thomas and Margaret Ann went on to have at least eight children. Samuel was born on the 26 February 1889, Joseph on the 2nd October 1892 (his mother is wrongly listed as Reid), Hugh on the 27 July 1894, David on the 29 May 1896, Archibald on the 15 January 1900, Maggie on the 16 June 1902, and Martha on the 29 June 1904.
Three of Hugh's brothers were on active service at the time of his death. One of these was 354 Private Joseph Steele, 11th Light Horse Regiment, AIF, another Andrew Steele, Royal Irish Rifles. The other has not yet been identified.
Rifleman Andrew Steele, Royal Irish Rifles, Sallagh, Cairncastle, County Antrim. He survived the war but had been wounded three times and was taken a Prisoner of War
Robert Crawford was born on 7th March 1894 at Ballygilbert, Cairncastle, the son of James Crawford, a publican of Ballygally, and his wife Jane, formerly also Crawford.
The family appear in the 1901 Irish census. James was aged 32 and a spirit merchant of Ballygally, his wife Jane 29 years old. The couple listed five children as present on the day of the census. Nellie was 8, Robert was 7, John was 5, James was 4 and Samuel W was aged 2. There is no record of the family in the 1911 census return.
The SS Castle Dobbs was a steel-hulled steamship registered at Belfast. The ship was carrying coal from Cardiff to Belfast when on 7 December 1917 it collided with HM Convoy Ship P51, a decoy patrol boat. SS Castle Dobbs subsequently foundered 10 miles southwest of South Stack lighthouse and 7 men lost from the merchant ship. South Stack lighthouse is situated near the North West tip of Wales, on a tiny islet known as South Stack Rock that is separated from Holyhead Island by 25 yards of rough sea.
Private Joseph Andrew McMullan, Lisnahay, Cairncastle. He served in the 18th Battalion, Australian Infantry and died a POW on the 9 June 1917.
Ellen was a 49-year-old widow in 1911. Joseph Andrew (19) and William James (17) were agricultural labourers and their brother Robert John was 13 still at school.
Joseph Andrew McMullan joined the AIF on the 6 April 1916 at Cootamundra in the fertile South West Slopes region of New South Wales, Australia, and in his will he said he lived at Downside, near Wagga Wagga. He was then about 23 years old, 6’ 1 ½ “ tall, single, and employed as a labourer.
He left Australia from Sydney aboard HMAT Euripides on the 9 September 1916 and disembarked in Plymouth on 26 October 1916. He went to Rollestone Camp, Salisbury Plain and the 5th Training Battalion. His training completed, he boarded the Princess Clementine at Folkestone and arrived in France on the 24 January 1917, joining the 18th Battalion thereafter on the 15 February. He was reported missing in action on the 3 May 1917 and later the Australians received a note which read as follows: ‘Austr. Sold. McMullan, J A (5639), Australier, am 9.6.17 bei Queant gerfallen’ (Australian soldier J A McMullan, 5639, Australian, fell at Queant on 9/6/1917). He had been wounded and recovered from the battlefield by the Germans but he subsequently died of his wounds while a POW in their hands. He is named on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial.
On 21 March 1918, the Germans had launched a huge offensive on the front between Arras and La Fère against the British Third and Fifth Armies, the latter embracing the 36th (Ulster) Division. The Germans had moved some fifty divisions from the eastern front, their aim to outflank the BEF in Flanders, attack its lines of communication, cut off its supply lines from the Channel ports, defeat the British and force a French armistice; if successful, the Kaiser would defeat the Allies and win the war. It was a desperate gamble but the USA had entered the war in April 1917 and the Germans knew they had to win before the well-trained American Expeditionary Force was committed in strength.
The Germans' opening attack, Operation Michael, began at 0440 hours when the heaviest artillery bombardment yet seen on the Western Front pounded the British around St Quentin. The forward trenches were blanketed with gas and smoke, and at 0940 hours the Germans attacked using their recently developed ‘Offensive in Trench Warfare’ tactics. Elite storm troopers led the fast moving assault and the infantry followed, that troops pouring forward out of a morning mist made denser by smoke from the continuing artillery barrages.
The Irish infantry facing the Spring Offensive or Kaiserschlacht (Kaiser's Battle), also known as the Ludendorff Offensive, were the 1st, 7th, 8th and 9th Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers; the 1st, 2nd, 12th and 15th Battalions, Royal Irish Rifles, and the 1st and 9th Battalions of the Royal Irish Fusiliers. The 1st Battalion, London Irish Rifles bore the brunt of a German attack supporting ‘Operation Michael’ around St Quentin.
The attack eventually failed and the subsequent Battle of Amiens led to the ‘Hundred Days’ and German defeat in the Great War but the Spring Offensive had cost the 36th (Ulster) Division 7,310 casualties. They and the 16th Irish Division were destroyed as effective units and had to be removed from the British order of battle for reconstruction.
It was in this maelstrom that Thomas Sittlington died. He has no known grave but is recorded on the Pozieres Memorial.
The SS Castlebar was a 508-ton steam cargo vessel that was completed by Mackie & Thomson, Glasgow in October 1895. The ship was initially named Madge Ballantyne (Official No.105959) for R. B. Ballantyne & Co., Glasgow, but in 1916 she was renamed SS Castlebar by W. M. Barkley & Sons, Ltd., Belfast. The vessel went missing after passing Fanad Head while on a voyage from Glasgow to Limerick with grain, and was presumed to be a war loss.
Chief Engineer William Crawford died on the 13th March with the rest of the crew. They were Mate Robert Cunningham, 2nd Mate James Erikson, 2nd Engineer John Erikson, Steward and Able Seaman Daniel McComish, Fireman Michael O’Keefe, Fireman William John Reynolds Robinson, Master William Henry Ryding, Able Seaman John Tsantaius, Able Seaman Thomas Twyford, Ordinary Seaman George H, Burman (RNVR, Bristol Z 9812), and Leading Seaman, George H Cattrell (RNVR, Bristol Z 9669).
There is a story which says that the ship’s Master, William Henry Ryding, had some premonition of his death on this trip. He and his son were leaving their house in Belfast to join his ship when he ordered is son to remain at home. He gave him his pocket watch. Moreover, in Liverpool two other brothers who should both have been on the ship normally received news that their mother was ill. One brother returned home but the other joined the vessel. He was William Crawford, the Chief Engineer.
The ship had been scheduled to sail to Limerick via a route south of Ireland. However, they deviated from their normal route as there was reported to be German submarine activity around their planned route. They joined a convoy heading to Londonderry and Lough Swilly. On reaching Lough Swilly the SS Castlebar continued on her journey alone towards Limerick along the west coast. She had just dropped out of sight of the convoy lookouts when an explosion was reported. It was assumed the SS Castlebar either had been torpedoed or had hit a mine, but there is no poof of what transpired.
1. Thomas Brown,
2. Robert J. Lilly,
3. William J. McMullan,
4. Joseph Steele (see below),
354 Trooper Joseph Steele, 11th Light Horse Regiment was the brother of Andrew and Hugh Steele and he had enlisted on the 3 March 1915. He said he was then 22 years and 4 months of age (born 2nd October 1892, the second child of Thomas and Margaret Ann Steele, nee Wray or Rea, Sallagh, Cairncastle), single and working as a farm labourer. He was recorded as being 5’ 9” tall and as having grey eyes and dark brown hair.
He was deployed to the Gallipoli Peninsula and while there with the 5th Light Horse Regiment was taken ill with colitis. He was moved from Mudros to England aboard HS Grampian after the 26 September 1915 and admitted to 2nd Southern General Hospital (Southmead Section), Bristol on the 11 October. He received medical treatment until discharged to the Weymouth Depot on the 10 January 1916. He then became one of the 21st Reinforcement Draft and was sent by Ivernia to Alexandria. He was at Heliopolis on the 1 March 1916 and was posted to ‘B’ Squadron, 11 Light Horse Regiment.
He was wounded in action at El Ferdan, a ‘slight’ shrapnel wound to his shoulder, and was treated for short periods in 1 Australian Stationary Hospital, 3 Australian General Hospital and at 14 General Hospital, Cairo before being released to the British Red Cross Hospital at Montazah for further convalescence. He was discharged to Moascar Camp and the 3rd Light Horse Training Battalion on the 11 October 1916. He undertook machine gun training at Zeitoun before returning to the 11th Light Horse Regiment via the 4 Light Horse Regiment on the 7 March 1917.
He was wounded again on the 5 July 1917, this time being shot in the palm of his left hand. It was self-inflicted and caused by him discharging his rifle while cleaning it. Such incidents were always suspicious – such wounds were often inflicted for the purpose of avoiding duty – and a Court of Enquiry was set up. Its verdict is set out below.
6. James McAuley,
7. Samuel Moore,
8. Archibald Steele,
9. James Campbell,
10. Samuel McAuley,
11. James Moore,
12. James Steele,
14. David McAuley,
15. Robert Sittlington
16. Montgomery Todd (see below),
40408 Corporal James Montgomery Todd, 2nd Royal Irish Rifles, Cairncastle, Co. Antrim, Prisoner of War
Photograph from the Larne Times, June 1918 and by courtesy of Nigel Henderson
40408 Corporal James Montgomery Todd, 2nd Royal Irish Rifles, Cairncastle, Co. Antrim, Prisoner of War Record
18. William H. McAuley,
19. Andrew Steele,
20. Robert Todd,
21. Robert Hunter,
22. Joseph McKee,
23. Samuel Steele,
24. Alexander Todd,
25. John M. Campbell,
26. Robert Crawford,
27. W. Stewart Crawford.
Archibald Douther was one of those struck down by the Spanish influenza outbreak at the end of the Great War. He was ill by the 11 December 1918 and his illness was designated ‘influenza-pneumonia’ the next day. His problems developed rapidly and he was seriously ill on the 13th. He died at 12 Canadian General Hospital, Bramshott at 5.45 pm that day.
John Henry Shaw was the son of John Shaw, Mounthill, Raloo, Larne and his wife Mary Campbell. The couple had married in Ballynure Presbyterian Church on the 18th November 1886.
The family, of Ballyrickard Beg, Raloo, Larne, appear in both the 1901 and 1911 Irish census returns, and at the latter date John Shaw describes himself as a ‘farmer, auctioneer and grocer’. The couple said in 1911 that they had had twelve children and that ten of them were still alive at that time. Son John Henry Shaw had been born at Mounthill, Raloo on the 1st August 1889 (not 24th July 1889 as it says on his military record).
John Henry had emigrated to Canada after 1911 and he was a clerk living at 11927-93rd Street, Edmonton, Alberta. He was single at enlistment but was married at the time of his death, his wife being Mary Teresa Shaw, then of 12006-65th Street, Edmonton; her last given address was PO Box 612, Portland, Oregon USA.
John Henry Shaw enlisted in the 194th Battalion on the 16th February 1916, stating that he had previously spent four years in the North Irish Horse, probably why he was soon Acting Company Quartermaster Sergeant, a role he voluntarily relinquished before going on active service. He passed through the 9th Reserve Battalion before being posted to the 49th Battalion. He went to France in October 1917, joining his unit in the field on the 13th October. He was posted ‘Missing in Action’ on the 30th October 1917 and it was later presumed that he had died on that date.
Shaw lost his life in fighting related to the 3rd Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele). The War Diary gives full details of what happened: October 30th – Battalion attacked the German front and support lines at 5.40 am … heavy opposition met with, causing very heavy casualties, the immediate objective was gained & held in spite the most trying conditions from enemy machine guns & shell fire; estimated casualties 5 officers & 65 other ranks killed, 13 officers & 260 other ranks wounded’ (sic).