The war service by three members of the Dunville family of Holywood and the whisky distillery in Belfast is outlined. John Dunville whose family owned the well-known Belfast distillery was an early pioneer of competitive ballooning who took leave of absence from the family company of which he was chairman to join the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). His eldest son, Robert Lambart Dunville, was commissioned into the 1st Life Guards as a Second Lieutenant. He was shot by the IRA In Castlebellingham whilst returning to his regiment. John Dunville’s second son, Second Lieutenant John Spencer Dunville was posthumously awarded The Victoria Cross. John Beastall was an apprentice boilermaker in Harland & Wolff’s who enlisted in September 1914. He went out with the Ulster Division and died on this day in 1916 trying to save others. Today’s Roll records the service of five RAF men who died on this date in WW2 over Norway, Germany, and the UK. Laurence Rentoul from Belmont, an Oxford graduate, and son of a Presbyterian minister, was lost in armoured reconnaisance in Italy in 1944. In 1945 William Hodge from Limavady fell serving with the Highland Light Infantry in the Netherlands. Photo – Rotilla roses at V.C Corner Australian Cemetery and Memorial, Fromelles.
Remembrance NI - Every day is a Remembrance Day 