Company Sergeant Major McIlwaine 12th Batt Royal Irish Rifles. North Street Carrickfergus

Not all of our stories are of the men who were lost during the war and there are many detailed accounts of those who served and returned to normal life following the years of fighting. 

Company Sergeant Major James Coudy McIlwaine 12th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles.  Born 30th July 1891, lived North Street Carrickfergus.  He enlisted in September 1914 and was demobilised today in 1918. 

James was the son of James Snr and Annie McIlwaine and brother to John and Gilbert who also served with the 12th Battalion.  In 1901 the family are recorded as living in house 123, West Division, Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim.    On 5th December 1907 McIlwaine joined Northern Bank at Head Office and from then until 1913 he worked in various bank locations in Belfast and Coleraine.  By 1911, the family have moved to 8 North Street in Carrickfergus where James Snr ran a fruit shop and James Jnr is recorded as a Bank Official.  On ‘Ulster Day’, Saturday, 28th September 1912, McIlwaine signed the Ulster Covenant at Carrickfergus Court House.   Whilst working in Coleraine James volunteered and enlisted on 16th September 1914 with the 12th Battalion Rifles.  He joined the British Expeditionary Force and was promoted first to Lance Corporal and then to Corporal.  Service was seen in the Somme 1916 (where he was taken prisoner), Messines 1917, Ypres 1917 (Langemarck), St. Quentin 1918, Mesines 1918 (Kemmel) and then the Allied Advance 1918.   Demobilisation came in February 1918.  He was awarded the 1914/15 Star, the British Victory Medal and the British War Medal.  After the war James went back to work with the Northern Bank for many years were he eventually reached the position of Assistant Chief Cashier in head office. 

(Thanks go to the Northern BankRoll of Honour for much of this detailed information)

 

A poem from some of the Carrickfergus "bhoys" of B Coy 12th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles

I was putting together some pieces for the book last night and started reading this poem again, I can't believe I have not shared it yet as it really does make fantastic reading.  In 9 versus it pretty much sums up the journey the lads have taken from working in Barn Mills flax mill and playing for Barn F.C to training in England and their embarkation to France.  I particularly enjoy the last couple of versus talking about how the Barn have sent over footballs to keep up morale.  The poem is dated 6th December 1915 and they are now in the trenches and champing at the bit to get at the Hun, if only they new what was ahead of them in the bitter months of 1916. 

Hope you enjoy it.   J.S

Rifleman John McCalmont 12th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles

John McCalmont - 3710 -  was born and raised in Carrickfergus, on the outbreak of war in 1914 he enlisted into the Central Antrim Volunteers, 12th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles.  While on active service in the Somme area of France he took ill in the trenches and died on 26th February 1916.  

The winter of early 1916 was a particular rough one and life in the trenches became very tough for the men.  The 12^th Battalion endured snow, sleet, rain and frost. They continued to fight a battle of attrition against the elements and the human enemy who sprayed their lines with machine gun fire or blasted the area with high explosive. On 26^th February, the Battalion war diary recorded that a man at Castor Post died a natural death – ‘he had always been troubled with asthma’.  It is now understood that this was Rifleman McCalmont. Life in the trenches was not for those with a weak constitution and exposure to the elements took a grim toll.

John is buried in Hamel Military Cemetery, Beaumont Hamel I.C 17 (PICTURED), he was an active member of St Nicholas Church of Ireland and is remembered on the church memorial plaque.  

Sergeant Trevor Barkley Boyd - Royal Air Force Reserve

This week Carrickfergus remembers Sergeant Trevor Barkley Boyd - 1145139 - Royal Air Force Reserve.  Born in Greenisland, Carrickfergus in 1922 he was killed in the air on a bombing run over Burma on 23rd/24th February 1944 aged 22. 

Trevor was the son of Edgar and Margaret Jessie Boyd of Greenisland and like many others in Northern Ireland during the war enlisted with the Royal Airforce Reserve.  He was assigned to a B-24 Liberator bombing crew as one of the 11 man crew.  On the evening of 23rd February 1944 he has the B-24 crew of BZ951 were on a bombing mission en route to Sinde in Burma when the aircraft was lost in the sky due to an explosion.  Records on the event are vague but it appears that the entire crew were lost and none of the men were ever recovered for burial.  The entire crew including Trevor are remembered on the Singapore Memorial, Malaya on column 43 (pictured). 

Singapore Memorial

The crew included another County Antrim man, flight Sergeant David Nelson from Larne.

At this stage I have been unable to find out anything more about the Boyd family or stories Trevor's service.  If anyone has any information at all please do get in touch.

We will remember them.

Details of the crew of B-24 BZ951:

ALLITT, Flight Lieutenant, ROBERT EDWARD, D F C, 40594. Royal Air Force. 23rd February 1944. Column 431. 

BEATEY, Warrant Officer, THOMAS ATKINSON, 1104751. Royal Air Force. 23rd February 1944. Age 28. Son of Thomas Beatey, and of Catherine Beatey, of Percy Main, Northumberland. Column 433.

BOYD, Sergeant, TREVOR BARKLEY, 1145139. Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. 23rd February 1944. Age 22. Son of A. Edgar and Margaret Jessie Boyd, of Greenisland, Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland. Column 435. 

FLETCHER, Sergeant, WILLIAM KENNETH, 1601738. Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. 23rd February 1944. Column 436. 

FRASER, Flight Lieutenant, FRANCIS JAMES, 66511. Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. 23rd February 1944. Age 25. Son of James and Janette Fraser, of Hove, Sussex. Column 431. 

HOUGHTON, Flight Lieutenant, RAYMOND DOUGLAS, 109364. Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. 23rd February 1944. Column 431. 

NELSON, Flight Sergeant, DAVID, 533351. Royal Air Force. 23rd February 1944. Age 26. Son of Hugh and Nancy Nelson, of Ballyhampton, Larne, Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland. Column 435. 

O'DONNELL, Pilot Officer, ERNEST WILLIAM, J/86852. Royal Canadian Air Force. 23rd February 1944. Column 444. 

RICHARDSON, Flight Sergeant, HERBERT ARTHUR, 517958. Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. 23rd February 1944. Age 29. Son of Herbert George and Selena Richardson, of Southsea, Hampshire. Column 435. 

MERRIMAN, Flying Officer, SYDNEY, 1791. Royal Indian Air Force. 23rd February 1944. Age 21. Son of Ernest and Gladys Merriman, of Agra, India. Column 445. 

An R.A.F B-24 Liberator

Sergeant Andrew McAllister 9th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles

On the 25th February Carrickfergus remembers Sergeant Andrew McAllister - 15325 - 9th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles.  Born in Carrickfergus in 1894 he died of wounds sustained in battle on 25th February 1917 aged 23.

Andrew was the son of Andrew and Isabella McAllister of Thornton, Belfast Road Carrickfergus.  He moved to Belfast around 1913 to seek employment and on the outbreak of war enlisted with the West Belfast Volunteers who were formed into the 9th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles.

Andrew was wounded in action in fighting around Ypres and subsequently died of his wounds in 25th February 1917.  He is buried in St Quentin Cabaret Military Cemetery in location II.B.4.  St. Quentin Cabaret was an inn about 460 metres east of Kandahar Farm, near the village of Wulverghem (now Wulvergem) and the front line. At times, the inn was used as battalion headquarters.

The cemetery was begun in February 1915 by the 46th (North Midland) Division and continued to be used by the divisions holding the sector until it fell into German hands with the capture of Wulverghem in April 1918. The village and cemetery were recovered in September, but only two further burials were made. There are 460 Commonwealth burials of the First World War in the cemetery of which 81 belong to men of the Royal Irish Rifles.

St Quentin Cabaret Military Cemtery

Richard McDermott 1st Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers

 This week Carrickfergus remembers Private Richard McDermott 12892 - 1st Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers.  Born in Carrickfergus in 1897 he was killed in action on active service in France 16th February 1917 aged 20. 

Richard was the youngest son of Adam and Barbara McDermott of Irish Quarter South and he and his family were all members of St Nicholas Church of Ireland in the town.  Richard had originally enlisted with the Royal Irish Rifles at the outbreak of war but transferred to the Fusiliers in 1916.


He is buried in Fins New British Cemetery in Sorel-Le-Grand (France) location VII C.29.  (Pictured below)

Fins New British Cemetery

Fins is a village on the road between Cambrai and Peronne. The British Cemetery is a little south-east of the village in the district of Sorel Le Grand on the right hand side of the road to Heudicourt.  ins and Sorel were occupied at the beginning of April 1917, in the German Retreat to the Hindenburg Line. They were lost on the 23 March 1918, after a stubborn defence of Sorel by the 6th K.O.S.B. and the staff of the South African Brigade; and they were regained in the following September.

The first British burials at Fins were carried out in the Churchyard and the Churchyard Extension, and the New British Cemetery was not begun until July 1917. It was used by fighting units (especially the 40th, 61st (South Midland) and 9th (Scottish) Divisions) and Field Ambulances until March, 1918, when it comprised about 590 graves in Plots I to IV. It was then used by the Germans, who added 255 burials, including 26 British, in Plots IV, V, and VI. In September and October 1918, about 73 British soldiers were buried by the 33rd and other Divisions, partly in Plots I and II, but mainly in Plots V and VI. Lastly, Plots VII and VIII were made, and other Plots completed, by the concentration of 591 graves after Armistice from the surrounding battlefields and from other smaller cemeteries, including:-

EQUANCOURT CHURCHYARD, where three soldiers from the United Kingdom were buried in 1917 and 1918.

FINS CHURCHYARD, in which nine soldiers from the United Kingdom were buried in April, 1917.

FINS CHURCHYARD EXTENSION, which was on the North side of the churchyard, within the enclosure of a house. It contained the graves of 121 soldiers from the United Kingdom and one from Canada, who fell in April July 1917, and one German soldier who fell in March 1918.

SOREL-LE-GRAND GERMAN CEMETERY, on the West side of the village, opposite the Communal Cemetery. Here were buried, some by the enemy and some by their comrades, 17 soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell in 1916-1918.

There are now 1289, First World War casualties commemorated in this site. Of these 208 are unidentified, and special memorials are erected to nine soldiers from the United Kingdom who are believed to be buried among them. Another special memorial records the name of a soldier from the United Kingdom, buried in Fins Churchyard Extension, whose grave could not be found on concentration. Nine graves in Plot VIII, Row E, identified as a whole but not individually, are marked by headstones bearing the words: "Buried near this spot." There are also 276 German burials here, 89 being unidentified.

This cemetery was designed by Sir Herbert Baker.