August 30 – The Ulsterman with encyclopedia brain was key player in Churchill’s team. Roll of Honour

On the anniversary of his death we remember John E Sayers, HMS Caroline reservist, surviver of HMS Courageous, key player in Winston Churchill’s Map Room and post war Editor of the Belfast Telegraph. A total of 70 former students of Foyle College lost their lives in WW1. Eric Craig died this day in 1916.A Second Lieutenant with the Royal Irish Rifles. Age 21. He was educated at Foyle College Londonderry where he played in the school’s XV rugby team and QUB where he read medicine 1915 – 16. His aspiration was to follow in his two brothers’ footsteps. At the time of deceased’s death, a brother, Lieutenant F W Craig, medical superintendent officer of health for Londonderry, was at the Front with the RAMC while another brother, Lieutenant Alexander V Craig, RAMC, had served for a year on the Western Front. In 1918 yet another Northern Ireland man returned to Europe with Canadian forces. George Chapman was born at the Maze, Lisburn. He died serving with the Western Ontario Regiment and is remembered at Sun Quarry Cemetery, Cherisy, France. Thomas Dick from Carrickfergus was lost aboard Avro Lancaster PD273 which took off from R.A.F. Wickenby for a raid on Stettin, Poland on the night of 29/30 August 1944. In his entry in the Roll of Honour is a profound account by a crew member who survived. Charles Murray from Acton, Co. Armagh died in the same operation. Both their remains rest in the Old Garrison Cemetery, Poznan, Poland.