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."

DORNAN, Matthew

Private, 1st Batt., Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers
Service No: 8956
Died: 13/02/1919
Age: 30

Interred in Bangor Cemetery

Matthew was born in Beech Street, Belfast, on the 11th September 1889. He was the son of  Joseph Dornan, a brick burner, and his wife Mary Dornan (nee McGreavey) and was the third of their four children.

The family lived at various addresses in Belfast: Taggarts Houses, Lower Ballysillan, where sibling Agnes was born in 1895; Lawnview Street in the 1901 census; and Mayo Street in the 1911 census and later.

Matthew worked in the Blackstaff Flax Spinning and Weaving Co. on the Springfield Road.

On the 7th February 1907 Matthew, then aged 18, enlisted for full-time service in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers having previously served in the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion.

He served in Malta, China and India where he spent part of his service working as a hospital orderly and in June 1914, he re-enlisted for another 2 years.

Matthew went to Gallipoli with the 1st Battalion in March 1915 and in August 1915 was sent to hospital with dysentery from which he suffered with continually off and on over the next year.

In 1916 the Battalion went to France but Matthew continued to suffer bouts of ill health.

In November 1917 he was finally discharged due to his health, his discharge papers recording that his discharge was due to "Disability caused by military service... attributable to... climate, stress of campaign, dysentery enteric and trench foot; Disability melancholia."

He is recorded as a Lance-Corporal on his discharge papers.

Matthew on being discharged went to live with his aunt Mrs Brown who lived in Ruby Street, Bangor.

It was there that Matthew died on the 13th February 1919 aged 28 of septic pneumonia and cardiac failure.

BEATTIE, Robert

Pioneer, 22nd Company, Royal Engineers
Service No: 338725
Died: 08/09/1919
Age: 26

Interred in Bangor Cemetery

Robert Beattie was born in Maryport, Cumberland, in Sept 1893. He was the youngest son of John Beattie and his wife Ellen (nee Agnew).

John and Ellen where from Co. Down and moved to Cumberland shortly after their marriage in 1876. John was a labourer and was working in an ironworks in Maryport and the family lived there until the late 1890s when they moved to Bangor and were living in Castle Street in 1901 later moving to Bingham Street.

Robert started work as a greengrocer and when war broke out enlisted in the Royal Irish Rifles (SN:18179) but was transferred the the Royal Engineers with whom he went to France in October 1915.

Robert was admitted to the Royal Victoria Hospital on 25th August 1919 were he died just over two weeks later on 9th September* from a haemorrhage on the brain.

* Although the headstone and CWGC recorded the date as 8th September the official death entry records the 9th.