Hubert James Lawson was born on 6th November 1897 at Main Street in Larne to William Lawson, Company Secretary for the Shamrock Shipping Company, and Isabella Lawson (nee Norritt). The family lived at Bonavista Terrace in 1901, at Old Glenarm Road in 1911, and later at “Elsinore” on Chaine Memorial Road. Hubert was educated at Larne Grammar School and enlisted with the Royal Irish Fusiliers on 24th February 1916 (Regimental Number 24010).

Private Lawson served on the Western Front with 9th Battalion and was discharged as “No longer physically fit for war service” due to illness on 27th June 1917, with Silver War Badge Number 198321. The medal card, medal rolls, and pension cards record his name as Herbert James Lawson, but one document includes an annotation that Hubert is the correct name. He was boarding at 11 Fountainville Avenue, the home of Miss E Livingstone, when he was awarded a 20% Disability Pension in respect of a collapsed lung at the rate of eight shillings per week.

Hubert graduated from Queen’s University as a Bachelor of Medicine and a Bachelor of Science in July 1924. He was a surgeon when he sailed from Shanghai onboard SS Yangtse, arriving at New York on 1st March 1927, before continuing his journey to the United Kingdom. He married Marjorie Brockbank at Ulverston in Lancashire, the marriage being registered in Quarter 1 1928. The UK and Ireland Medical Register of 1930 records that Hubert was working for the Malayan Medical Service and they were living in Penang Province when their first son was born. Hubert was Medical Officer at Seremban before being appointed as Chief Medical Officer for Kelantan.

During the Japanese advance, Hubert arranged for Marjorie and their three sons – John (14), Billy (12), and Dennis (9) – to be evacuated to Australia. Hubert remained at his post at the Teloh Anson Hospital in Perak and was interned by the Japanese after the Fall of Singapore in February 1942. On 29th October 1944, he was allowed to send a message card from Singapore to his family in Sydney. The message included the following line, “Trust will not be long before we are all united”.

Dr. Hubert James Lawson died of a stomach tumour at the Sime Road Civilian Internment Camp on 2nd December 1944, aged 47, and is buried in Choa Chu Kang Cemetery in Singapore.

The camp occupied a 470-acre site and had been the Combined Operations Headquarters of the British Army and Air Force from December 1941 until the Fall of Singapore. Hubert left effects of £1137 fourteen shillings and nine pence (approximately £43,487 in current terms) to Marjorie, who had returned to Northern Ireland with their sons to live at “Elsinore” in Larne.

Dr Lawson is commemorated on the UK Civilian Roll of Honour for the Second World War and his name was recently added to the war memorial plaque at Larne Grammar School. He is also commemorated on a side-panel at the Lawson family plot in Larne’s Greenland Cemetery.

William Norritt Stewart Lawson, the second son of Hubert and Marjorie, served in the Korean War as a Lance-Corporal with 55th Independent Squadron Royal Engineers, part of the 1st Commonwealth Division. In addition to being awarded the United Nations Korea Medal, he was awarded the British Empire Medal (Military Division) in “recognition of services in Korea during the period 1 August 1954 to 31 January 1955”.

After leaving the army, William pursued a career as a marine engineer in the Merchant Navy and was an engineer officer on SS Ramore Head when he was presented with the British Empire Medal at Thiepval Barracks on Friday 17th August 1956 by Lieutenant-General Sir Brian Kimmins, GOC Northern Ireland District.

William and Isabella Lawson lived at “Elsinore” until their deaths. Isabella died on 18th March 1944, aged 72, and William Lawson died on 2nd April 1947, aged 81. They are buried in the Greenland Cemetery in Larne. Marjorie Lawson died in Belfast on 5th October 1954, aged 50, but her place of burial is not known. William Christie Lawson, Hubert’s older brother, was the Managing Director of the Shamrock Shipping Company in 1947.

Nigel Henderson, History Hub Ulster Researcher

—————————–

Acknowledgements:

Photograph in Malayan Medical Service uniform provided by John Hoy

Lawson family plot photograph Jenny Brennan

Cemetery commemoration image is from the Singapore Tombstones Epigraphic Materials website 

Newspaper photograph of William Norritt Stewart Lawson from Belfast News-Letter (18th August 1956)

The post The Biography of Dr. Hubert James Lawson from Larne appeared first on History Hub Ulster.

Whilst researching Arthur Moore Cinnamond, a victim of the 1941 German air raids, I came across an obituary in the Belfast Telegraph that recorded that he was a member of Cliftonville Golf Club. Hugh Daly from Cliftonville Golf Club informed me that Arthur had been a member of the club’s council in 1911 and was club Captain in 1925. At the Annual Meeting of the club in March 1919, Arthur Cinnamond intimated his intention to provide a special victory prize to commemorate club members who had served in the Great War.
The trophy was made by R McDowell Company (Watchmakers, Jewellers, Gold Silversmiths, and Opticians) of 14 High Street and the inscription reads:

1919
Cliftonville Golf Club
Victory Prize
Presented by A.M. Cinnamond
In memory of
Our fallen Heroes
And as a token of
Thanksgiving
For the Safe Return
Of our Comrades

To the sides of the dedication are the names of four fatalities and thirty-one members who served (including Miss M Lockhart). The first winner of the trophy was W Shaw in 1919, and the trophy is still played for each year.

Great War Fatalities

Sergeant William Henry Calvert

William Henry Calvert was born on 7th June 1892 at Oldpark Road to William Henry Calvert, a draper, and Margaret Calvert (nee McKay). The family was living at Cliftonville Street in 1911 when William junior was an apprentice jeweller with Gibson and Company of Donegall Place and Castle Place. William Henry Calvert senior was a member of Cliftonville Golf Club Council in 1911 and served on the committee for 18 years.

The family home was later at Old Change on Knutsford Drive. He was a company commander in the Cliftonville Battalion of the North Belfast Regiment Ulster Volunteer Force when he enlisted with the Royal Irish Rifles (Regimental Number 14/14264) in September 1914. He was deployed to France with 14th Battalion in October 1915. On 7th February 1916, he was giving bomb-throwing instructions to a number of soldiers when a live bomb exploded. Sergeant Calvert was 23 years old and is buried in Ste. Marie Cemetery, Le Havre, France. He is commemorated on the memorial tablet for Cliftonville Presbyterian Church. William Calvert captained Cliftonville Shamrock Football Club for two years and was a member of Cliftonville Football Club.

2nd Lieutenant John Dobson

John Dobson was born on 21st December 1889 at Connor in County Antrim to William
Dobson and Jane Dobson (nee Cooper) and the family was living at Glenfarne Street in
1901. In 1911, the family was living at Roe Street when William was a van driver and John
was a commercial clerk. John was working for Messrs Pratt Montgomery (tea and sugar merchants and family grocers of York Street and Victoria Street) when he was commissioned into the Royal Irish Fusiliers. He married Mary Georgina Hopper on 10th May 1916 at Fortwilliam Park Presbyterian Church and she lived at Oaklands, Chichester Park.

2nd Lieutenant John Dobson was serving with 1st Battalion when he was wounded on 3rd May 1917 and died the following day. He was 27 years old and is buried in Aubigny Communal Cemetery Extension, France. He is commemorated on the memorial tablet for Agnes Street Presbyterian Church.

2nd Lieutenant Edwin Samuel Frizelle

Edwin Samuel Frizelle was born on 26th January 1894 at Ballysaggart near Dungannon to
William George Frizelle, a linen factory manager, and Mary Jane Frizelle (nee Broomfield).
The family was living at Oldpark Road in 1901 and at Alliance Avenue in 1911, when Edwin
was an undergraduate at Queen’s University. He graduated as a Bachelor of Arts in 1913
and was awarded a Master of Arts degree in 1914. Edwin moved to Bury, intended to study for the medical profession, but upon the outbreak of war he volunteered for war service and received his commission in the Bury Pals Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers in August 1914. He was posted to the Gallipoli Peninsula with 5th Battalion and sustained gunshot wounds to the right arm on 4th June 1915. He was evacuated to a base hospital at Alexandria, but returned to the Gallipoli where he was killed in action on 3rd August 1915.

Edwin was 21 years old and is buried in the Lancashire Landing Cemetery on the Gallipoli
Peninsula. In the census returns, the Frizelle family is recorded as being Baptist. 2nd
Lieutenant Edwin Samuel Frizelle is also commemorated on the Queen’s University War
Memorial.

Captain Frederick William Girvan

Frederick William Girvan was born on 23rd May 1893 at Kilbride near Doagh to Robert
Girvan, a clerk in a mill, and Isabella Girvan (nee Millar). The family was living at Duncairn
Gardens by 1901 and Robert was a cashier at a spinning mill in 1911. Frederick was a
teacher at Lynn Memorial School on Baden Powell Street at the outbreak of the war and the
family was living at Easton Crescent during the war.

Frederick was commissioned into the
Devonshire Regiment from Queen’s University Officers Training Corps in June 1915. He held the rank of Lieutenant when he was posted to 8th Battalion in France on 10th September 1916. Captain Girvan was Killed in Action on 26th October 1917, aged 24, and is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial in Belgium. He is commemorated on the memorial tablet for St Enoch’s Presbyterian Church, on the Roll of Honour tablet for Queen’s University OTC, and on a family memorial in Carnmoney Church of Ireland Graveyard.

The Trophy Donor

Arthur Moore Cinnamond was born on 8th October 1872 at University Street to Arthur Cinnamond, a wine merchant, and Eliza Cinnamond (nee Barber). He was educated at Royal Belfast Academical Institution, Queen’s College in Belfast, and Christ Church in Oxford. After completing his education, Arthur joined the family firm and he married Harriett Mary Molyneux Rogers of Princethorpe, Cliftonville Road, on 22nd November 1898 at St Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church, Donegall Street. In 1901, they were living at Glenisheen on Cliftonville Road and Arthur was a director in Cinnamond Moore Limited (Distillers and Wholesale Wine and Spirit Merchants) of Church Lane. In 1911, Arthur was an auctioneer and valuer, and he became the sole proprietor of Clarke Sons (Auctioneers) of Rosemary Street in 1913. He joined Civic Masonic Lodge No 425 on 13th December 1916 and remained as a member until his death. Harriet Cinnamond died at their Glenisheen home on 3rd October 1938, aged 68.

Arthur Moore Cinnamond was well known in sporting circles, particularly rugby and golf, and he was a prominent figure with Cliftonville Golf Club, having been part of the council when the club was formed in 1911 and he was Club Captain in 1925.

In the aftermath of the Great War, Arthur Cinnamond presented a trophy – the Victory Cup – to the club in memory of the members of the club who had died in the war and those who had served and returned home. He was killed by falling masonry at 11 Ben Madigan Park on 16th April 1941, aged 68, and he left effects of £733 3s to his daughter, Mrs Mary Molyneux Kean.

Nigel Henderson.

The post Cliftonville Golf Club – Victory Prize appeared first on History Hub Ulster.

Wreath Ceremony 1922

Model (Belfast Telegraph Aug 1919)

On Saturday 28th January 1922, the Holywood & District War Memorial was unveiled.

The decision to proceed with the erection of a war memorial to commemorate fatalities from Holywood and District was taken at the Town Hall on 15th August 1919. Mr Leonard Stanford Merrifield of Chelsea provided a model of the memorial. In 1919, 150 subscribers had promised £725 and it was thought that the total cost would be £900, which equates to £47,500 in current terms.

The memorial was erected on a parcel of open ground between Holywood Railway Station and Holywood Orange Hall. The plot had been purchased for this purpose by Mr David Alfred Fee JP, who donated the plot to Holywood Urban District Council.

Site Preparation (Belfast Telegraph Nov 1921)

Site preparation work commenced in November 1921. The rugged Portland Stone base of the memorial was nine feet and six inches tall and the bronze statue of the soldier in full war kit in “On Guard” position was six feet high.

Dedication Panel

Company Quartermaster Sergeant Wilmot Webster, Commandant of the Holywood Branch British Legion, read out the names of the 109 men commemorated on the memorial, the announcement of each name being followed by a muffled drumbeat. Wilmot Webster of High Street in Holywood was a 42-year-old married man with three children when he enlisted with the 6^th Battalion Connaught Rangers on 14^th November 1914. He held the rank of Acting Quartermaster Sergeant when he was deployed to France with 16^th (Irish) Division in December 1915.

Extra Name (S Patterson)

He was serving with the Labour Corps when he was transferred to the Class Z Army Reserve on 10^th April 1919. He subsequently received a pension for deafness attributable to his war service and rheumatism and arthritis aggravated by war service. He died on 1^st January 1926, aged 52, and is buried in Holywood Cemetery.

An additional name was added in 2011. Samuel Potter, who served as Patterson, was killed in action on 14th September 1914 during the Battle of Aisne whilst serving with 2nd Battalion Connaught Rangers. Amongst the names commemorated are a recipient of the Victoria Cross, three men awarded the Military Cross and two men awarded the Military Medal.

George Malcolm Dunlop

The memorial was unveiled by Mrs Bessie Dunlop of St Helen’s in Holywood, the widow of Dr Archibald Dunlop. She said, “I feel honoured in being asked to unveil this beautiful and striking monument, erected to the memory of our fellow-townsmen, who gave their lived for King and Country. I am one of those who suffered a double loss among them. I think my eldest son was, of those we commemorate today, the very first to fall.”

John Gunning Moore Dunlop was born on 14 December 1885 and received his commission from Cambridge University Officers Training Corps in September 1910. He was gazetted to the Special Reserve of Officers for the Royal Dublin Fusiliers in June 1911. He was deployed to France with 2nd Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers, disembarking at Boulogne on 22nd August 1914. He was Killed in Action five days later near Clary during the Battle of Mons at the age of 28.

George Malcolm Dunlop was born on 13th January 1889, received a commission with the Royal Dublin Fusiliers in 1909, and held the rank of Captain in December 1914. He was killed in action with 1st Battalion at the age of 26 during the calamitous landing at Cape Helles on the Gallipoli Peninsula on 25th April 1915.

Mary Elliott laying Holywood wreath

The Public Wreath was laid by Mrs Mary Elliott of Sullivan Street who lost three sons in the Great War.

Private William Robert Elliott was serving with 2nd Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers when he was killed on 26th August 1914 during the retreat from Mons at the age of 32.

Lance Corporal Joshua Elliott was serving with 13th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles when he was killed by shell-fire during heavy enemy bombardment on 4th August 1917, at the age of 30.

Sergeant Francis James Elliott was serving with 2n Battalion Royal Irish Rifles when he died of wounds on 7th August 1917 at the age of 28.

Holywood War Memorial (Belfast Weekly Telegraph, Feb 1922)

The Dunlop brothers and the Elliott brothers are also commemorated on the memorial tablet in Holywood Parish Church.

David Alfred Fee, Chairman of Holywood Urban District, said,

“I have the melancholy pleasure of accepting, on their behalf, as custodians of the ratepayers, the statue just now unveiled, which will remind future generations of the heroic deeds of the gallant sons of Ulster who went out voluntarily in response to their country’s call to fight in the spirit of their forefathers for liberty and freedom”.

David Alexander Fee was to suffer personal loss in the Second World War when his son, Lieutenant Thomas Hugh Cecil Hickland Fee, Royal Naval Reserve, was Killed in Action on 23rd November 1939, aged 28, whilst serving on HMS Rawalpindi.

HMS Rawalpindi

Holywood Trophy Gun (Larne Times, July 1924)

From July 1924, the memorial was flanked by two German guns that had been awarded to Holywood as war trophies.

From examining old newspaper images and postcards, the memorial has been moved twice in the past 100 years. It was originally position in the middle of the square closer to the Orange Hall and protected from traffic by railings. Later, four sturdy stone bases were set in place to support light fittings. Later still, the memorial was moved closer to the shoreline and there was talk of turning it around so that the people attending on Remembrance Sunday would not be facing the back of the memorial.

Holywood War Memorial

There was local opposition to this as the soldier was deemed to be protecting the town from seaborne attack. In recent years, the memorial was moved to its current position and the rugged Portland Stone base replaced by a dressed stone base.

Holywood War Memorial

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

Nigel Henderson

History Hub Ulster Researcher

The post Centenary of the Holywood and District War Memorial appeared first on History Hub Ulster.

According to naval records, Hugh McNeill was born in Belfast on 5th January 1881.  Hugh enlisted on 7th July 1899 and served in the crushing of the Boxer Rebellion (10th June to 31st December 1900) in China, for which he was awarded the China War Medal (1900).  He subsequently served on HMS Goliath.  In 1911, he was stationed at Fort Blockhouse in Gosport and he was discharged on 6th September 1912, having completed twelve years of service.  On the following day, he enrolled with the Royal Fleet Reserve.

He settled in Belfast and was Head Boots at the Imperial Hotel, which was located on the corner of Donegall Place and Castle Lane.  When Hugh married Annie Harland on 12th October 1913 at St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church in Belfast, he was recorded as being a “Navy man” and was living at 56 Canal Street in Saltcoats, Scotland.  His father’s name was recorded as Daniel (Tradesman) and Annie, a millworker, was a daughter of Michael Harland (Tradesman) of 12 Bute Street in the Jennymount district of Belfast.  

At some stage after their marriage Hugh and Annie moved to Ballymena and were living at 11 James Street when Hugh was recalled from the Royal Fleet Reserve.  His name is included on the list of 78 men from All Saints’ Roman Catholic Church serving with His Majesty’s forces that was published in the Ballymena Weekly Telegraph on 5th June 1915. 

As there were insufficient ships to accommodate all the naval personnel recalled from the reserves and men enlisting with the navy, Winston Churchill, First Sea Lord, instituted a new naval force called the Royal Naval Division, which would fight as infantry in land campaigns.  Hugh McNeill served with the Portsmouth Battalion of the Royal Marine Brigade of this new force at Ostend and Antwerp between 26th August 1914 and 1st September 1914.  He was wounded in the left leg and right knee by a splinter from a German shell and, during the withdrawal from Antwerp, the train on which he was travelling was knocked off the rails and surrounded by Germans.  In the engagement that followed, there were many casualties on both sides and several marines were captured but a party of 90 men under Major French got safely away after a 35-mile forced march to the Belgian village of Ecloo.

Hugh McNeill then served with a Royal Naval Air Service’s Armoured Cars unit under Commander Charles Rumney Samson RN between 10th September 1914 and 17th October 1914 before returning to the Royal Naval Division.  Following a period of furlough, an interview with Hugh McNeill was published in the Ballymena Weekly Telegraph in May 1915 in which he spoke highly of the “pluck and daring” of Commander Samson, particularly in engagements with roving units of Uhlans (Light Cavalry, with a Polish military heritage), saying that, “the Germans had come to greatly dread and fear Commander Samson and his gallant men”.

In January 1918, Hugh McNeill was promoted to Lance-Corporal and transferred to HMS President III – this was not a ship but a shore establishment for men serving on Defensively Armed Merchant Ships. Hugh was a member of the gun crew on SS Montebello when she was torpedoed by U-100 on 21^st June 1918 and sank 320 miles from Ushant, an island off the coast of Brittany, with the loss of 41 lives.  Lance-Corporal McNeill, who is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial, was 37 years old when he died. He was awarded the British War Medal, the Victory Medal and the 1914 Star, the latter being issued to his widow on 1st July 1920.

Nigel Henderson, History Hub Ulster Member

Acknowledgements and Sources:

Michael Nugent (ww1researchireland.com), John Hoy (Ballymena & The Great War, snake43.webs.com/), Richard Graham, Ballymena Weekly Telegraph, Royal Navy & Royal Marines War Graves Roll and Royal Naval Division Casualties of the Great War.

The post Hugh McNeill – Veteran of the Boxer Rebellion dies in Great War  appeared first on History Hub Ulster.

In December 1918, five captured guns were presented by Brigadier General George William Hacket Pain to the City of Belfast. In accepting the guns, which were placed in front of the Queen Victoria Memorial at Belfast City Hall, the Lord Mayor of Belfast, Sir James Johnston, said, “they would be cherished as mementoes of the great world war” and finished his speech with “The guns would remind many generations to come of the great victories achieved by our gallant soldiers”.  From as early as 1924, there were no guns on display at the Queen Victoria Memorial during the various Somme and Armistice Day commemorations held in front of Belfast City Hall.

As had been intimated in 1915, the captured guns were distributed to locations across the United Kingdom, although guns were generally not delivered to locations in Northern Ireland until 1923 due to the civil disturbances in the opening years of that decade. Documents at the National Archives in Kew record that 72 trophy guns were allocated to Northern Ireland. Whilst most went to urban or rural councils, trophy guns were also on display at Queen’s University in Belfast, Campbell College in Belfast and Portora Royal School in Enniskillen.

However, it is clear from newspaper reports that the trophy guns were not always welcomed or wanted. Also, some public representatives were dissatisfied with the trophies that they did receive and some councils either did not put them on display or removed the guns from display with unseemly haste. Some members of the public also questioned the desirability of having trophy guns on display, as demonstrated by a letter “Enemy Guns” published in the Northern Whig on 6th July 1925. 

In April 1923, the Belfast News-Letter reported that the War Office was sending four eight-and-a-half ton guns to Enniskillen and that the council was asking for the number to be increased to six guns. One of the guns was subsequently sent to Portora Royal School, which had already received one trophy gun directly from the War Office. In March 1925, the Northern Whig reported that Enniskillen Urban Council had removed the German gun from the Diamond and the same newspaper reported, in December 1926, that the two guns outside the gaol were, “to be placed at the rear of the old gaol (out of the public view)”.  In September 1927, the Belfast News-Letter reported (see inset) that Sir Basil Brooke had written to Enniskillen Urban Council requesting the guns for Colebrooke House and Brookeborough. The Colebrooke House gun has been on display at Enniskillen Castle since February 1976.

In March 1924, the Ballymena Weekly Telegraph reported that Mr George McMullan expressed the opinion at a meeting of Portrush Urban District Council that, “the German trophy should not be exhibited. I would rather it were thrown into the sea”. Mr Christie, Chairman of the council, replied that, “the gun might have been captured by Portrush men”.

Bangor received two war trophy guns – a howitzer/mortar was placed next to the coast at Kingsland and the deck gun from the German submarine U-19 was placed in Ward Park. This submarine was notorious at an international and local level, having sunk RMS Lusitania and landed Sir Roger Casement in County Kerry in advance of the Easter Rising in Dublin. This gun was dedicated to Commander Edward Barry Stewart Bingham VC and is one of only three Great War trophy guns that remain on public display. On 2nd October 1935, the Belfast News-Letter reported that Bangor Borough Council had decided to sell the Kingsland trophy gun for scrap, a decision which incurred the wrath of the Bangor Branch of the British Legion, which submitted a letter of complaint. The council subsequently reversed its decision.

One of the smallest villages to be awarded a trophy gun was Balnamore, three miles west of Ballymoney. In March 1920, the Ballymena Observer reported that Mr James Young JP of the Braidwater Spinning Mills had written to Ballymoney Rural Council congratulating the council on “obtaining a captured German gun in recognition of the splendid response to the call for voluntary enlistment for national service”. In his letter, Mr Young went on to say, “before leaving Balnamore, his company desired to erect a memorial to commemorate their unbounded admiration for the men of Balnamore who went willingly overseas to stem the German invasion, and also to perpetuate for all time their names in the district.”

Their proposal was to erect a suitable platform for the captured German gun on the triangle in front of Balnamore post office, with the names carved on the sides. The gun was delivered to the village in October 1923 and, in September 1933, Hale, Martin & Company (who had taken over the spinning mill) handed over the memorial platform and the gun into the council’s care and keeping.

In nearby Ballymoney, there was uproar at the Urban District Council regarding the gun that was delivered to the town in June 1923.

The Northern Whig and the Belfast News-Letter both reported on discussions in the council chamber concerning the gun. Mr Robert McAfee expressed the opinion that “the town Ballymoney was deserving a better trophy. lt is 32 years ago since it was manufactured, and I question whether it was in the late war at all. It is like a piece of down pipe of spouting set on two wheels”. The field gun was placed on a pedestal in the small green at the Town Hall.

In Omagh, there was opposition from Nationalist councillors on the urban council to the trophy gun that was to be sent to the town by the War Office. In March 1923, Mr Orr spoke in favour of receiving the guns, saying that, “this was a matter above party or politics, as the men of their local regiment, the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, of which they were proud, belonged both to the Orange and Green flag”. Two months later, the Mid-Ulster Mail reported on the ongoing wrangle between rival councillors. Mr McLaughlin said, “the council should never have considered the question of taking the gun at all, as the feeling of the majority of the members was totally against”. 

Meanwhile, the British Legion in Omagh had secured a German machine gun (reported as having been captured by the 9th Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers). The Londonderry Sentinel reported on the ceremony in which the machine gun was placed outside the premises of the Omagh Branch of the British Legion. Following representations from a local solicitor and councillor, Captain William Henderson Fyffe MC, a German gun that had been captured by the 5th Inniskillings in Northern France in the closing days of the war was secured for the Omagh Loyalist Association and this gun was placed outside the Protestant Hall in Omagh in October 1923.

In October 1923, the Ballymena Observer reported that the German guns sent by the War Office to Ballymena had not received a fulsome welcome by Ballymena Urban District Council. The Clerk said the guns they had received – one howitzer and one Maxim – were not suited to the importance of the town. They had been promised two field guns and a machine gun but had only received one field gun and a machine gun. The Chairman remarked, “if we are to have war trophies for the Memorial Park let them be something presentable.  Other towns of much less importance than Ballymena have been able to secure something better than derelict German machine gun for their Parks”. One of the councillors, Mr Craig, went further saying, “What do we want with them, a lot of German rubbish?”.

Carrickfergus Urban District Council had requested two field guns and two trench mortars. However, the War Office offered a heavy field gun, a field gun and a machine gun but sent two heavy guns. These guns lay in the London Midland & Scotland Railway Company’s yard in Carrickfergus until 1929. Although they were never put on public display, the council spent £40 cleaning and painting the guns. In November 1929, the LMS Railway notified the council that the guns had to be removed within two weeks, prompting the council to send an ultimatum to the War Office stating that, “unless Carrick is relieved of its cannons they would be sold as scrap”. On 3rd December 1929, the Northern Whig reported that the council had accepted a tender of £12 [approximately £700 today] from O & T Gallagher of Corporation Street in Belfast.

In Dungannon, the trophy gun was pulled into position outside the British Legion’s new club premises for the Armistice Day commemoration in 1923. Six years later, due to bus traffic, the gun was moved from Market Square to a position overlooking the ex-Servicemen’s houses on Empire Avenue. In late 1937, Dungannon Urban Council considered a proposal to sell the gun for scrap, but this met with opposition from the British Legion and ex-Servicemen, who decorated the gun with a Union flag and a notice declaring “Not for Sale Lest We Forget”. There is still a German field gun on display in the park on Black Lane, the site of Dickson’s Mill. The information panel at the site records that the gun had been purchased by the Dickson family at an auction of military artillery in the south of England in 1920.

There are, to the best of my knowledge, only three trophy guns from the Great War still on display in Northern Ireland.

A list of the locations in Northern Ireland that received trophy guns is contained in this spreadsheet which, where possible, details the fate of the guns.

Written by History Hub Ulster member Nigel Henderson.

*The below article from the Larne Times (25th May 1940) demonstrates that many were sold for scrap as part of the war effort during the second world war.

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