On this day in 1915 “The Witness”, a Presbyterian Church newsmagazine, reports on the UVF at Clandeboye Camp, Newcastle and Ballykinlar and the same day the London Irish Rifles go over the top as the Battle of Loos begins. The Roll today records the 87 from NI died this day in Europe in WW1. 32 of them were serving in Scottish regiments. An attack at Bellewaerde Lake near Ypres on 25/09/1915 cost the Royal Irish Rifles 2nd Btn over 350 casualties. Second Lieutenants Kenneth and Melbourne Ross, brothers from Cultra, died. They are both named on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial. On the same day Viscount Andrew Steward of Stewartstown fell with the Royal Scots Fusiliers at Loos and Old Portoran, Major Nicholas Archdale fell with the Cameron Highlanders. In 1941 three Gunners from Newtownards, Joseph Dalzell, Samuel Graham and William McNeilly, died in North Africa. They are remembered at Tobruk War Cemetery, Libya and Newtownards War Memorial. Naval Reservist William Allen from Bellarena near Limavady was lost in a trawler being used as a minesweeper which was sunk by E-boat torpedo off Harwich in 1943. On the same day 21- year-old James Boyd from Lisburn who had been in Rodney at Narvik , at the sinking of the Bismarck, and in Hood for the North African invasion, was lost in HMS Itchen after six years service. Photo – Parachute Regiment colours at Osterbeek’s 75th anniversary Remembrance Service in 2004.
Remembrance NI - Every day is a Remembrance Day 