MAHAFFY, Henry Irwin

Second Lieutenant, Royal Flying Corps
Date of Death: 22/10/1917
Age: 23

 Interred in Bangor Cemetery

Henry Irwin Mahaffy was born in Ward Villa West, Bangor, on 7 September 1894. He was the son of William Irwin Mahaffy, a solicitor, and his wife Jane (nee Machett) a native of Australia where they married in 1893. He was the eldest of their six children.

He attended Bangor Grammar School and September 1911 became apprenticed to his father who had offices in Calendar Street, Belfast, and had been appointed as Town Solicitor of Bangor in 1901.

Henry, who also played rugby for Bangor, enlisted on the formation of the Ulster Division and served in France with the 13th Battlion, Royal Irish Rifles.

In February 1917, he returned home and qualified for a commission in the Royal Flying Corps and was gazetted as 2nd Lieutenant in May and was stationed at Salisbury Plain.

However, just five months later, in October 1917, Henry was to tragically lose his life in a training flight.

His father travelled to England and returned Henry's body to Bangor for interment.

His younger brother William, was later killed in the Second World War while serving with the Royal Air Force.

CAIRNS, Percival

Lieutenant, Royal Flying Corps.
Died: 28/06/1926
Age: 36

Remembered on family memorial in Bangor cemetery

Percival Cairns was born in, Glasgow on 22nd August 1889, the third son of James Cairns, a police constable (later police inspector) and his wife Mary Cairns nee McKeown, who came from Belfast. He studied at Glasgow School of Art from 1905 to 1912 and married Christina Elliot McAllister in 1914.

He enlisted in the Royal Artillery and served with the 3rd Lowland Howitzer Brigade and transferred to the Royal Flying Corps at the beginning of 1918. He was discharged in the end of 1919.

After the war he returned to his occupation as an architect and went in to partnership with Neil Campbell Duff. He died on 28th June 1926 of pulmonary tuberculosis.

A biography of his career is given below.

From the Mackintosh Architecture archive in University of Glasgow.

Percival Cairns was born in Springburn, Glasgow in 1889. He attended the Glasgow School of Art from 1906-7 until 1910-11, while also engaged as an apprentice to Honeyman, Keppie & Mackintosh from April 1909 to April 1910. He is recorded in the 1911 census as an 'architectural draughtsman'.

Cairns became an associate member of the Glasgow Architectural Institute around 1913. The Glasgow Post Office Directory gives his office as 108 Douglas Street (an address shared by architect Robert J. Walker), while another entry lists '136 Wellington Street'; no. 136 was also shared with other practices, including John A. W. Grant. It is thought that Cairns may have been articled to Neil Campbell Duff between 1905 and 1912, but it is not till 1914 that there is firm evidence of him working as Duff's assistant.

Duff had an unusual specialism: the production of scenes of crime, or 'locus' plans, for legal firms and as evidence for courts. Examples from Cairns's time include a murder site at Sheildhall timber wharf (1914), and an arson-damaged shop in Partick (1915). Duff concentrated on the entertainment industry, frequently as part of a syndicate which identified sites for potential development into dance halls or cinemas. The syndicate would form a joint-stock company with a public share issue, thus raising capital to fund the construction. Among Duff's projects on which Cairns was probably employed was the planned Regent Hotel and Picture House in Sauchiehall Street, advertised in December 1913.

After renting a house at Oxford (now Oban) Drive, Kelvinside, in 1915, Cairns vanishes from the records until 1919, possibly due to war service. Around 1919, Duff took Cairns into partnership, and the title of the firm reflects this from 1920. A further share-issue was made in 1921, to fund their jointly-signed design, the 'Palais de Danse' hall at Eglinton Toll, specifically chosen to be near major tram interchanges in southern Glasgow. Cairns died in 1926.

COLLIER, Reginald John

Second Lieutenant, Royal Flying Corps
Service No: 16207
Age: 19
Date of Death: 12/02/1918

Interred in Bangor Cemetery

Reginald John Collier was born on 15th October 1898 at 21 Strandmillis Gardens, Belfast, to William F. Collier, an accountant, and Marion F. Collier (nee Townsend). The family later moved to Evelyan Gardens on the Cavehill Road before settling in Bangor in the early 1900s.

Known as Jack, he was educated at Bangor Grammar School and Kings Hospital School, Dublin and took up a position in the Belfast Banking Company, working in their Cromac Street branch when he enlisted in early 1917.

A BE 2E which was the type of aircraft Jack was flying.

He was also a member of the Queen's University Officer Training Corps in the years 1916-1917.

He transfered from the General List to the the Royal Flying Corp with the rank of Second Lieutenant in August 1917.

On 12th February 1918, Reginald was killed in a flying accident while training with 13 Training Squadron at RAF Yatesbury.

He is remembered on the war memorial in St. Comgall's parish church in Bangor and in the Queen's University Roll of Honour.

ROLL OF HONOUR

COLLIER – February 12, accidentally killed when flying, Reginald John Collier, Second-Lieutenant R.F.C., only son of W. F. Collier, 123, Hamilton Road, Bangor, aged 19. Funeral service in Bangor Parish Church this day (Saturday, 16th inst.), at 2.30. Funeral immediately after to Bangor New Cemetery.

Northern Whig, 16th February 1918.