Captain Alexander Joseph Molloy MC

The Great War Roll of Honour for Belfast Royal Academy includes a section listing distinctions gained by former pupils and includes the award of the Portuguese Military Order of Aviz to one person. This is the first time that I have seen a reference to an Ulsterman receiving this award or, indeed, any award from the Republic of Portugal. Although he is recorded on the Roll of Honour as “J A Molloy”, his name was Alexander Joseph Molloy.

Photograph courtesy of John McCormick

Alexander Joseph Molloy was born at Poona in India on 5th September 1872 to Assistant Surgeon Oscar Fredrick Molloy, Royal Army Medical Corps, and Jane Molloy (nee Douglass). His father held the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel when he retired from the RAMC and was living in Holywood when he died of pneumonia and cardiac failure on 27th March 1902, aged 58. His mother later lived at Malone Road.

Alexander was educated at Royal Belfast Academical Institution and Belfast Royal Academy. He enlisted with the Royal Irish Regiment on 1st April 1892 and served in India until November 1895. He held the rank of Corporal when he was transferred to the Class B Army Reserve on 11th June 1897. Corporal A J Molloy joined the Cape Colony Police in September 1897 and served in the Second Anglo-Boer War, being awarded the Queen’s South Africa Medal (Cape Colony, Orange Free State, and South Africa 1901 clasps)*. He transferred to the Cape Rural Police on 20th November 1901 and was discharged from the Royal Irish Regiment on 30th September 1902 when he was promoted to Chief Constable.

At the outbreak of the Great War, he enlisted as a Gunner with the South African Field Artillery for service in the German South-West Africa campaign. On being released from service in 1915, he enlisted as a Private with the South African Infantry for service in the German East Africa campaign. He held the rank of Regimental Sergeant Major when he received a field commission in June 1916. He was serving with an Askari force in East Africa when he resigned his commission in May 1918. He then enlisted as a Private for service in Europe and later received a commission with the Royal Army Service Corps. He was serving on the Western Front when he was hospitalised with influenza on 23rd November 1918 and was evacuated to England on 15th December.

After the Armistice, he was stationed at Victoria Barracks in Belfast and held the rank of Captain when he relinquished his commission. He returned to South Africa and lived at Tennyson Street in East London.

During the Great War, he was:

  • awarded the Silver Medal for Valour by the King of Italy (London Gazette, 31st August 1917),
  • Mentioned in Despatches (London Gazette, 7th March 1918),
  • awarded the Military Cross (Edinburgh Gazette, 25th March 1919), and
  • made an Officer of the Military Order of Aviz by the Republic of Portugal (London Gazette, 6th April 1920).

Although he served in combat zones 1914 and 1915, he was not entitled to receive the 1914/15 Star as he had not served in a qualifying campaign. He was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

* According to local newspaper reports, Alexander served with the Cape Mounted Rifles in the Second Anglo-Boer War, being wounded at Stormberg in December 1899. The newspaper reports record that he was Mentioned in Despatches and was awarded the Queen’s South Africa Medal (four clasps) and the King’s South Africa Medal (two clasps). The author has not been able to locate a matching reference in the British Army medal rolls for that conflict.

Nigel Henderson, History Hub Ulster

Ulster War Memorials from History Hub Ulster

As 2018 is the centenary of the Armistice on the Western Front, signed on 11th November 1918, History Hub Ulster felt it would be appropriate to produce a book, Ulster War Memorials to commemorate this important centenary.

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Whilst HHU Researcher Nigel Henderson had already photographed many memorials in Ulster, the main driving force behind the book, Ulster War Memorials is HHU Chair Gavin Bamford, who has had a long-standing interest in war memorials.

Belfast Cenotaph (Belfast News Letter, 20-08-1919)In the Preface to the book, Gavin says,

I first began to take an interest in war memorials whilst researching the employees of the Belfast Banking Company and the Northern Banking Company who gave their lives in the Great War. In addition to brass tablets listing those who served and the fatalities, both banks produced a series of studio portraits of the men. Currently, the brass tablets and portraits are located in the Head Office building of Northern Bank t/a Danske Bank. They are displayed in the basement and only accessible to the general public on request.”

Gavin recalls that a specific interest in war memorials that have been hidden, lost, or destroyed over time occurred whilst enjoying a cup of coffee in Flame restaurant on Howard Street in Belfast.

Garvagh War Memorial - Headlines (Northern Whig, 28-03-1924)

I noticed a plaque and, being curious, I went over to have a look. It transpired to be a commemoration of the laying of the foundation stone for the Presbyterian War Memorial Hostel in 1923. The stone had been covered over at some stage in the past, probably when the Skandia restaurant occupied the space, and had been uncovered during renovations by the current owners. They decided to retain the stone as part of the fabric and history of the building. More recently, I identified that the war memorial tablet from Elmwood Presbyterian Church in Belfast, which closed in the early 1970s, was held in a store room in Elmwood Presbyterian Church in Lisburn. Whilst, I knew about the war memorial tablets in Central Station in Belfast and Connolly Station in Dublin, I only recently discovered that a tablet had also been erected in the Londonderry terminus. It is in storage and I have initiated steps to get it renovated and re-erected. It is my hope that the memorials for the men from the three local railway companies will be brought together in one location in Weaver’s Cross, the new Belfast Transport Hub.”

Nigel Henderson had the task of compiling material relating to war memorials in Ulster, covering all nine counties of Ulster and identifying unique and interesting examples to feature in a forty-page book. No easy task, given the wide range of types of memorials and the research presented distractions – for example, German Trophy Guns and War Memorial Orange Halls.

Irish Nurses (QAIMNS) War Memorial (Irish Times, 07-11-1921)

Though the initial concept was for a coffee table book the final product goes a lot further, whilst remaining true to the original idea of focusing on public memorials which have an aspect that is unusual or unique. There is at least one war memorial from each of the nine counties of Ulster in the book – some of the memorials are monuments (cenotaphs, obelisks, statues, etc), some had a practical or community aspect, some were introduced as competition trophies by sporting associations.

It identifies the largest war memorial constructed in Ulster in the inter-war years as well as the tallest memorial and the only war memorial that is alive. For the memorials featured, research was conducted using newspapers and other online resources to identify material about the memorials – details on who designed, sculpted or constructed the memorial, details on when memorials were dedicated and by whom.

Public or town war memorials take many different forms:
• Cenotaph (for example, Belfast, Cookstown, Larne, Newry and the County Tyrone Memorial in Omagh)
• Obelisk (for example, Ballynahinch, Kilrea, Ballymena, Tandragee, Kingscourt)
• Temple (Lurgan)
• “Victory” figure (for example, Lisburn, Portrush, Londonderry)
• Soldiers (for example, County Fermanagh Memorial in Enniskillen, Downpatrick, Dromore and Holywood)
• Celtic Cross (for example, Cregagh, Hillsborough)
• Practical/Functional (for example, Ballinderry, Castledawson)
• Clock Tower (for example, Garvagh, Waringstown)
• Tablet/Plaque (for example, Castlewellan, Moneymore, Pettigo)
• Lychgate (Crumlin)

Snowman Memorial, Newtownards, March 1924

Snowman Memorial, Newtownards, March 1924

In the book’s forward, local historian and author, Philip Orr says,

As a result, both during and after the Great War, a remarkable and diverse array of memorials was created in Ireland, as indeed happened across these islands. These local memorials often located grief and commemoration in tangible, meaningful ways within particular civic, sacred or familial spaces. Nigel Henderson’s work plays an important role in drawing our attention to the subject, a century later. Despite problems caused by Northern Ireland’s political fractures and by the lack of funds in an inter-war era of poverty and economic downturn, the work went ahead – and Nigel’s thorough and revealing account gives the reader an insight into the motivations and practice of those involved in Ulster’s own memorialisation process. Most of these projects still survive to this day, though some are long gone.”

Whilst the book does cover some church memorials and contains a chapter (Playing The Game) on memorials produced by sporting organisations, the focus is on public memorials erected to commemorate those from a defined locality. There is a chapter that relates to women who died as a result of the war, with a focus on the Irish Nurses Memorial in St Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast. There is also a chapter on memorials with which the Holywood-born sculptor Sophia Rosamund Praeger was associated – these include the memorials in Campbell College and Belfast Royal Academy, several churches within the Non-Subscribing (or Unitarian) Presbyterian denomination, the Workman Clark shipyard and the County Tyrone War Memorial in Omagh.

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