Tag Archives: County Tyrone

Artificer, Commonwealth War Graves, County Tyrone, Great War, history, illness, Ireland, Kent, Northern Ireland, photography, Royal Navy, story, war

Engine Room Artificer James Donnelly

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Engine Room Artificer James Donnelly

James Donnelly’s life is a challenging one to pin down. Based on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission information, he was born in 1888 in Cappagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, and was the son of Owen and Mary Donnelly. Unfortunately, there are no baptism or census records to expand on his family background.

Military records are equally sparse. James enlisted in the Royal Navy as an Engine Room Artificer 4th Class. He was assigned to HMS Pembroke, the Royal Naval Dockyard in Chatham, Kent; given how early in the conflict, and his position at the lower end of the ERA rankings, is it likely that he was posted there for training.

James’ time in the military was to be brief. He was admitted to the Royal Naval Hospital in Chatham, suffering from cerebrospinal meningitis. The condition was to prove severe: he succumbed to it on 19th May 1915, at the age of 27 years old.

Finances may have prevented the Donnelly family from bringing their boy back home. Instead, James was laid to rest in the Roman Catholic section of Woodlands Cemetery, Gillingham, not far from the naval base at which he had served.

Engine Room Artificer James Donnelly
(from findagrave.com)
accident, Commonwealth War Graves, County Tyrone, Great War, history, Ireland, Northern Ireland, photography, Pioneer, Royal Engineers, story, war, Wiltshire

Pioneer William Hamilton

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Pioneer William Hamilton

William John Hamilton was born in Urney, County Tyrone, in 1870. One of ten children, his parents of John and Bella. Little further information is available about his early life, but on 29th September 1895, William married Sarah McLaughlin.

The couple set up home in Ballycolman Lane, Strabane, and had at least six children. William worked as a shop porter, while Sarah kept house for the family.

By the time of the 1911 census, William was working as a general labourer. War was brewing over the continent by this point, however, and when hostilities were declared, he stepped up to play his part.

Full details of William’s service are lost to time. What documents remain, however, confirm that he enlisted no earlier than June 1917, and that he joined the Royal Engineers as a Pioneer. He was attached to an Inland Water Transport unit and sent to Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, for training.

Pioneer Hamilton’s Pension Ledger Card provides a tantalising insight into his passing. On 25th December 1917, he died from “suffocation from submersion accidentally drowned while on active service.” There is no other documentation to expand on what happened, and no contemporary newspaper report on his passing. William was 47 years of age.

It would appear that Sarah was unable to afford the cost of bringing her late husband’s body back to Ireland for burial. Instead, William John Hamilton was laid to rest in Amesbury Cemetery, close to where he had passed away.