WELSH, Hugh

Rifleman, 12th Batt., Royal Irish Rifles
Service No: 18/1613
Died: 21/03/1918
Age: 19

Remembered on Pozieres Memorial
Remembered on family memorial in Bangor Cemetery

Hugh Welsh was born in Conlig on 20th November 1898. His father was William James Welsh, caretaker of the waterworks, and his wife Catherine Welsh (nee Sloan). He was the youngest of their five children.

His parents were married in Ballyblack Presbyterian Church in July 1988 (William living in Whitespots and Catherine living in Conlig.)

Sometime after this, his parents emigrated to the United States where their first three children were born – Sarah Jane in 1892, William Anthony in 1894, and Margaret Elizabeth in 1895. All are listed as being born in Battle Creek but there are a number of towns with this name in the US.

Shortly after Margaret was born the family returned home and were living in Whitespots when their fourth child Catherine was born in September 1897. They then moved to Conlig where Hugh was born.

By 1901 the family were living in Bangor Bog – a townland to the West of Bangor close to where Clandeboye Cemetery is located – but were back in Conlig by the time of the 1911 census.

A strange occurrence happened in 1914 when Hugh went missing on 16th March. His father advertised in the local papers for information. The Belfast Telegraph carried the following article

A CONLIG MYSTERY.
There whereabouts of Hugh Welsh, a fifteen-year-old lad, residing at Conlig, near Bangor, who disappeared on Monday last, still remains a mystery. On Monday the boy left Conlig for school at Bangor, when he was wearing brown corduroy trousers, blue coat and vest, and a blue skull cap. He did not reach his destination, but was last seen in the neighbourhood of Craigavad, to which he was traced via the Belfast Road. After that no further trace of him was found, and it is supposed he must have gone on in the direction of Belfast. The boy's father has visited every farmer in the locality, and also of his friends and relatives, who live in Belfast, but without result, for so far. Welsh is short of stature for his age, has very full face, brown hair and blue eyes, and a bright, attractive manner. Information has been conveyed to the police, and an active search is being made.

Belfast Telegraph, Monday 23rd March 1914, p8.

I have currently been unable to find any further information on this but some avenues of research still remain to be done.

Conlig Presbyterian Church War Memorial

Hugh next turns up in the records having enlisted in A company, 18th (Reserve) Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles in Newtownards when he gave his name as Walsh.

His will, which was witnessed in Clandeboye Camp, is stamped with the date 29th November 1917 suggesting he enlisted a number of months previously with the will being made following training and before being deployed.

Hugh Welsh was killed on 21 March 1918 during the German Spring offensive and is remembered on the Pozieres memorial.

TODD, James

Lance Corporal, Depot, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers
Service No: 17745
Died: 10/06/1919
Age: 29

Interred in Bangor Cemetery

I have not been able to ascertain the date and place of James' birth which was not helped by the various ages recorded for him giving a possible date of birth of between 1886 and 1890. A possible entry for him in the 1911 census is that of James Todd working as a farm servant for Samuel and Anna Shaw in Ballykillaire (wrongly recorded as Ballykillaine in the census). The age recorded in the census is 21 which corresponds to the age on his death certificate of 29 – which I prefer to go with as the more accurate – with the CWGC giving an age of 33.

The first definite record for James is in 1912 when he married Elizabeth Jackson in Ballygilbert Presbyterian Church on the 4th November 1912. Here he gives his fathers name as James Todd, a labourer.

At this time James was living in Ballywooley (near Crawfordsburn).

Their first child, Agnes, was born on the 15th April 1913 in Ballybundon which is a townland near Killinchy.

James had been working for Mr. William M'Bride, a general merchant in Central Avenue, Bangor, when he enlisted on the 18th August 1914.

He joined the 6th Service Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, and was stationed in Portobello Barracks in Dublin when his second child, Elizabeth, was born just two months later on the 4th October 1914. The family were living in Railway View Street, Bangor, at this time.

The battalion moved to England in April 1915 before embarking for the Dardanelles landing in Gallipoli on the 7th August 1915.

An obituary for James in the Herald and Co Down Independent records that he "... was wounded at Achi Baba on 9th August, 1915. After recovery at home he joined the 29th Division in France, where he was wounded in January, 1918. He was discharged as unfit for further service through wounds in September, 1918, and on returning home was employed by Mr. R. J. Woods, Princetown Lodge, Bangor."

James never recovered from his injuries and took seriously ill in June 1919 being admitted to Bangor Hospital where he died on the 10 June 1919, the cause of death recorded as "Chronic Nephritis 2 years and Uraemic convulsions 2 days".

His obituary further records that James was "... laid to rest on Thursday afternoon, with military honours, in the New Cemetery. The firing party was composed of men of the Somerset Regiment, and behind the coffin, which was draped with a Union Jack and floral tributes, there marched the brethren of L.O.L. 1091, Crawfordsburn and members of the Bangor Branch, Comrades of the Great War. Despite the fact that a thunderstorm, accompanied by heavy rain, prevailed, there was a large muster of the general public."