In 1917 the Ballymena Observer reports that Robert Quigg VC has been awarded the Russian Medal of Saint George. In 1944 Trevor Boyd from Greenisland and David Nelson from Larne are lost in the same bomber over Burma, and Ballymena-born Captain Desmond Young of the Irish Guards falls at Anzio. The former Rockport student had been Mentioned in Despatches. Robert Doherty a former member of 502 Ulster Squadron died in a Pathfinder on mission near Kiel on the same day in 1945 when U.S. Marines storm Mt. Suribachi on Iwo Jima and one of the most famous photographs of World War II was taken, “Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima”. James Killen was a First World War soldier and later groundsman at Ballykinlar Camp for 39 years (1897-1974). The pitches he built there became popular. After the war, the England football team regularly used the pitches for training, and James received high praise for the excellent quality of the pitches from Sir Stanley Matthews, and goalkeeper Frank Swift, among others. In 1966, Sir Alf Ramsay’s England football team, fresh from winning the World Cup, came to Ballykinlar to practice on the pitches, before playing Northern Ireland at Windsor Park. Photo – the Singapore Memorial.
Remembrance NI - Every day is a Remembrance Day 