Remembrance NI
Every day is a Remembrance Day
August 14 – Belfast paper’s report of Somme dead. Roll of Honour
The Somme losses of July 1916 are still being recorded as news in the Belfast press. OTD Upperlands man dies in Australian forces. Two lost in a three-masted topsail schooner, a WW1 secret Q ship. RAF losses in both wars. Read More
August 13 – The Manhattan Project begins. Roll of Honour
Four Travers brothers from Derry served in WW1. Michael died on this date in 1915 in Gallipoli. Hugh Montgomery, Campbell College, and QUB, a first-class motorbike racer, after Dunkirk, transferred from the Royal Artillery to fly with RAF in WW2. OTD in 1942 the Manhattan Project begins which leads to the dropping of the atomic bombs. See link to the RAF Museum for the views of Leonard Cheshire VC. Read More
August 12 – HMS Manchester crew interned in Algeria. Roll of Honour
Four crew from Belfast, Newtownards, and Portadown in HMS Manchester were interned by Vichy French in Algeria in 1942. By 1915 three brothers of the Newell family had died in the war. Links with BRA. The cost of 1917 in Europe is reflected in today’s Roll. In 1942 two NI men from Enniskillen and Donaghcloney died in the aircraft carrier HMS Indomitable when she was bombed escorting a convoy to Malta.
August 11 – HMS Eagle and HMS Albatross. Roll of Honour
Two centres of musical excellence – Westminster Abbey and the Band of the Royal Marines. 24 names are recorded in today’s Roll. They include four in HMS Eagle in 1942 and four in HMS Albatross which was badly damaged by a U Boat in 1944. Three Irish Guardsmen died in Normandy. Read More
August 10 part 2 of 2. Roll of Honour
The Roll for 1915 is dominated by Gallipoli. Coleraine born Daniel McIfatrick and William Morgan from Lisburn. 1917 and 1918 entries are from Ypres and the Somme. Amongst them is Edward Lennox who enlisted at Kilrea. In 1943 several Riflemen from RUR died in a railway crash at Scarborough. Photo – Jerusalem War Graves Cemetery. Read More
August 10 Part 1 of 2 – The UVF dry land sailors honoured by the Tzar. Roll of Honour
111 Royal Navy personnel from Northern Ireland were involved in what is perhaps the most bizarre linking of Irish politics with the international relations of the First World War. Men from the UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) served in Russia with the Royal Navy Armoured Cars Squadron of the Royal Naval Air Service. Amongst them was Bear Grylls great grandfather.
August 9 – SAS men from NI executed by the Gestapo. Roll of Honour
Tod Barker from Cookstown and Billy Young from Randalstown were murdered by the Gestapo in 1944. Ernest Harper from Dungannon a junior lecturer at QUB died in Gallipoli. 21 Royal Inniskillings graves are in Potijze Chateau Wood Cemetery, Belgium (photo here). Hazell Alison, a Cambridge graduate from Portrush, is named on Menin Gate Memorial.
August 8 – The hell of Passchendale. Roll of Honour
Henry Gill from Belfast dies fighting with Australians at Gallipoli – his New Testament, his correspondence, and his mother’s letters form part of the Australian National War Memorial archives. Mustard gas attack on Derry Fusiliers 1917. Boy Sailor Joseph Magill in a sinking and a POW on his 18th birthday. William Adams one of forty former North Irish Horse serving as infantry in 10 Skins dies in action. Five RAF WW2 entries on today’s Roll show the global nature of the war.
