
Today’s Roll includes accounts of a number of remarkable people. In WW1 William Kane of Londonderry, a member of the city’s UVF, was one of the first to join up. He was 17 years old and his 15-year-old brother also joined up and they both went out to France with the Ulster Division. William died in 1916. His entry in today’s Roll gives insight into society in the city then. In 1941 William Patterson DSC, ex RBAI, was lost in HMS Jersey. There were at least two admirals in his family with links to NI. In 1942 Benjamin Hillier was lost in HMS Edinburgh. He was one of five brothers serving. John Graham from Garvagh, John Moffit from Aughnacloy, and James Ramsey from Ballymoney died at Anzio with the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in 1943. Samuel Clayton from Portadown achieved his dream to fly in the RAF. He died in a crash over the Somme in 1944. Sir Robin Kinahan served with a Belfast Gunner regiment in Europe, the UK, and Burma in WW2. He later was Lord Mayor of the city. Herbert Hanley, one of today’s veterans remembered, served in the same regiment as Sir Robin. Like many wartime Gunners, he sustained hearing loss – the big guns did that.