bigalni Posted 6 August , 2004 Share Posted 6 August , 2004 A couple of days ago i spent the day on a very interesting tour ,organised by my local university,of old airfields etc around the North coast of N Ireland. At the end of the tour we visited a churchyard in a town call Limavady,ostensibly to view WW2 Airforce graves. I spotted a single WW1 grave which showed the chap was buried in 1919. I neglected to note his details but what was unusual was the fact that the wargraves headstone was located immediately behind an obviously much older memorial /headstone.It was only about a foot or eighteen inches directly behind it!Directly behind the war grave was a stone wall. So..the headstone was placed between a wall and another memorial directly in front of it making it difficult to view it and very easily missed. Very strange...any ideas or anyone seen anything similar? Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ali Hollington Posted 6 August , 2004 Share Posted 6 August , 2004 Looking on the CWGC website it lists: Cemetery: LIMAVADY (ST. MARY) ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH CEMETERY Country: United Kingdom Locality: County Londonderry Historical Information: There are 7 Comonwealth burials of the 1939-1945 war here. No. of Identified Casualties: 7 Had a quick look but couldn't find a 1919 death amongest the seven displayed. Strange! Ali Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry Denham Posted 6 August , 2004 Share Posted 6 August , 2004 Yes, I have seen this but in reverse - with the CWGC stone immediately in front of the old private stone. In your case it is possible that the CWGC stone was there first and a private one erected later in front. Alternatively, the casualty may not be mentioned adequately on the private stone and CWGC could not get permission to place an official stone on the grave. The reverse situation is shown in the pic below (remember this one Sigs?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigalni Posted 6 August , 2004 Author Share Posted 6 August , 2004 Looking on the CWGC website it lists: Cemetery: LIMAVADY (ST. MARY) ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH CEMETERY Country: United Kingdom Locality: County Londonderry Historical Information: There are 7 Comonwealth burials of the 1939-1945 war here. No. of Identified Casualties: 7 Had a quick look but couldn't find a 1919 death amongest the seven displayed. Strange! Ali There were more than 7 WW2 graves all grouped together..mainly Australian and New Zealand airmen but this grave was completely seperate from these and the impression i got was that the stone in front was an older memorial!Cant recall if it was an RC churhyard............possibly a different church? Ill try and get back there in the next few days and take a pic. Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry Denham Posted 6 August , 2004 Share Posted 6 August , 2004 Ali is right. There are no WW1 official war graves in Limavady. That means the stone is probably an example of a Non-World War headstone which are nothing to do with CWGC - although they can look look similar (see http://1914-1918.org/forum/index.php?showt...=non-world+war) However, that still does not explain the odd placing which you describe. There are only seven WW2 war graves and so any others are probably also Non-World War graves - often servicemen who died outside the qualifying period. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigalni Posted 9 August , 2004 Author Share Posted 9 August , 2004 i managed to visit the cemetary again today and took a few...not very good snaps. The cemetar is actually DRUMACHOSE Church of Ireland cemetary ,Limavady.. and it contains 24 headstones plus the one i mentioned for discussion. Picture of the graveyard below. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigalni Posted 9 August , 2004 Author Share Posted 9 August , 2004 The single..strangely placed headstone is pictured below.As you can see a much older cross is placed directly in front of it. The headstone is marked.......25967 Pte J McGahy Royal Irish Fusiliers. 5th May 1919. Picture below Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry Denham Posted 9 August , 2004 Share Posted 9 August , 2004 The following are the WW1 war graves in Drumachose.. BEW, Private, W, 11116. Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. 28th October 1914. Age 41. Son of Thomas and Elizabeth Bew. Born at Caversham, Oxon. 462 (on West boundary). LAWSON, Private, G F, 33228. 2nd. Reserve Cavalry Regiment. 5th March 1917. 714 (South-West part). McGAHY, Private, J, 25967. 4th Bn. Royal Irish Fusiliers. 5th May 1919. 639 (on South boundary). ROGERS, Pioneer, P, WR/329055. Royal Engineers. 14th January 1919. Behind 541. WARKE, Private, T, M/319711. Army Service Corps. 22nd September 1918. Age 35. 84 (North-West part). It is still possible that the private headstone was added later - when other family members were buried in the grave. Also, if the private stone pre-dates the death of your man, it is possible that his name was not added by the n-o-k and so CWGC obtained permission to place the stone to commemorate him. It is certainly an odd positioning but one, no doubt, brought on by particular circumstances at the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigalni Posted 9 August , 2004 Author Share Posted 9 August , 2004 The picture of the actual stone isnt very good but ill post it below to see if its readable. The remaining headstones are of a standard design and are comprised of a mix of RAF ferry Command,several RAAF,Canadian AF,N Zealand AF, RAF,One Squadron Leader amongst them aswell as one simply named to An Airman of the Second World War. Only one of the headstones is Army...to an RA LBDR. They look like CWG headstones to me........... Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry Denham Posted 9 August , 2004 Share Posted 9 August , 2004 These are CWGC war grave headstones. The references to Non-World War headstones are irrelevant here as they were brought up when we were thinking this was Limavady rather than Drumachose cemetery Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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