Henry Melia, 1st Battalion Dublin Fusiliers, Lance- Corporal

[Haggate]

 

Henry Melia

1^st Battalion Dublin Fusiliers

Lance- Corporal

 

Henry was born on the 5^th August 1892

 

His baptism at St. Mary R.C. Church, Oldham on the 18^th September 1892 gives his birth date and address as 18 Halstead St. Oldham.

 

His parents Richard and Margaret nee Dowling had married at the R.C. Chapel of St. Mary in Oldham on the 28^th August 1881.

 

Richard was from Co. Mayo,Ireland. He was born about 1861. His parents had moved to Crompton, near Oldham, Lancashire between 1861 and 1871.

 

Margaret was from Dublin, Ireland, she was born about 1861 and the earliest record I can find of her is living as a boarder in Oldham, Lancashire in the 1881 census, a few months before her marriage to Richard.

 

They had the following children, Mary 1882-1882; Ellen 1883 -1887; Richard 1885-1887; Ellen 1887 - ?; Mary 1890 -1943 and Henry 1892 -1915.

 

In 1891 Richard and Margaret lived at 18 Halstead St. In the St. Mary’s area of Oldham with their daughters Ellen and Mary.  Richard was working as a cotton carder in one of the local cotton mills.

On the 18^th December 1894 Margaret died and was buried a few days later at Greenacres Cemetery, Oldham.

 

Richard was living with his widowed sister Ann McLoughlin, her children and his two daughters Ellen and Mary at 23 Heyside, Royton, Lancashire in the 1901 census.

 

Henry was not on the census return and I have been unable to find him living with other family members anywhere in the area.

 

By the 1911 census Richard was living at 2 Rhodes St, Heyside, Royton, Lancashire with his daughters Ellen and Mary. Henry again is missing from the census returns. It does show on the census return that Richard has 3 children.

 

Mary married  John Carrol in 1912 at St Joseph R.C. Church, Shaw, Lancashire. They had 2 sons and 4 daughters and lived at 28 Adelphi St. Oldham after they got married and then later at 21 Canterbury St. Higginshaw, Oldham which was the address mentioned for her sister Ellen in the newspaper report.

 

Richard died on the 3^rd August 1914.

 

The only record I can find for Ellen after 1911 is a newspaper report from the Liverpool Echo 26^th August 1915 about the sinking of the White Star Liner, SS Arabic by the Germans on the way from Liverpool to Cork where she writes that she was a cabin passenger on the ship but reports of her being missing were false as she was much alive.  She was a Miss and her address was 21 Canterbury St, Higginshaw, Oldham.  Higginshaw is the next area along from Heyside. The S.S. Arabic was the first White Star Liner passenger ship to be sunk during WWI, having served the Liverpool to New York and Liverpool to Boston routes

 

This brings me now to Henry whose picture appears in the Oldham Chronicle supplement of the 19^th June 1915 with this description under his photo. The address given is the same as Ellen in the newspaper report.

 

‘Lance Corporal H. Melia. 21 Canterbury St. Higginshaw. 1^st Battalion Dublin Fusiliers, killed in the Dardanelles operations, aged 22 years’.

 

There is also an article in the Rochdale Observer newspaper from the 26^th May 1915 which states he was well known in the Heyside district of Royton and his former address was Rhodes St. Heyside. He was reported killed in action.

 

I can not find Henry on the CWG and he is not on Royton or Crompton/ Shaw town’s war memorials which includes the Heyside area. There is a H Melia on Oldham's War Memorial which is possibly him. He does however appear on the war memorial for St. Joseph’s R.C. Church, Shaw, Lancashire and there is a newspaper report from September 1916 where his name is mentioned in a remembrance service along with others who have died.

 

I have checked the local Oldham newspaper reports but nothing further has turned up. The newspaper article about his death states “he was well known in the Heyside district”  which makes me think he must have been living in the area prior to his joining the army.  A puzzle is where he is in the 1901 and 1911 census returns. His father seems to have had his daughters with him but not Henry. 

Any help locating him on the census returns or military records would be appreciated. 

The CWGC have said that they can find no mention of him in the 'Debt of Honour Registry' with the information I have given.

I have attached the cutting from the Oldham Chronicle showing the photograph of Henry, the memorial from St. Joseph's R.C. Church, the cutting from the Oldham Standard re his death, the cutting from the Liverpool echo re his sister Ellen.

I posted this on the facebook page of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers but have not had any replies which help identify him.  I have checked to see if he possibly hadn't died in 1915 but can not find evidence of him. 

I do have a bit of a personal interest in Henry as he is possibly a distant relative, my great grandfather was called Melia and he emigrated from Co. Mayo at the similar time as Richard ( Henry's father) and lived albeit at a later date at Rhodes St. Heyside  where my grandparents lived but saying that there was 8 houses on the street when they lived there and 4 had the surname Melia but I haven't been able to connect them with my family tree as yet.

 

 

[Acknown]

I imagine you have seen this: https://gm1914.wordpress.com/2016/03/31/lusitania-crime-repeated/.

Acknown

[Haggate]

Hi Acknown,

I hadn't seen this article but read something similar more about Miss Roy Duncan the actress and not with a photo either of Ellen Melia. And that's from my local studies centre.  I am glad she managed to emigrate eventually. Thanks very much for the information.

Regards Andrew

Edited 3 October , 2022 by Haggate

[Jervis]

Hi Andrew.

It is a very strange one that there is no CWGC record  It looks to me like the most probable cause is Henry was serving under an alias name. Which was a relatively common occurrence at the time. With both his parents dead & sister(s) abroad, possibly there was no NoK around to update the Army records. 

The 1st Dublin arrived In Gallipoli 24th April 1915. The earliest newspaper article announcing his death is on the 26th May 1915. Obviously there was a time delay in news arriving home, so we are looking at a narrow window in which Henry died. Sometime between April 24th & Mid May 1915.

Taking what we know on face value, we can search for all Lance Corporals aged circa 22 who died with the 1st Dublin in this period. If we exclude those with additional info populated (NOK names, addresses) there are 9 possible candidates worthy of further investigation to verify who they were and if they were Henry.  
(Of course as a Lance Corporal it is entirely possible that he was still recorded as a private which broadens the number of possible candidates significantly and it becomes a much more difficult task). 

Jervis

[michaeldr]

2 hours ago, Jervis said:

possible candidates worthy of further investigation to verify who they were and if they were Henry.  
(Of course as a Lance Corporal it is entirely possible that he was still recorded as a private which broadens the number of possible candidates significantly and it becomes a much more difficult task). 

Jervis,

You can add to your list of possibles 

PRIVATE H. NULTY 
Service Number: 10249
Regiment & Unit/Ship - Royal Dublin Fusiliers 1st Bn.
Date of Death - Died 30 April 1915
Buried or commemorated at V BEACH CEMETERY Special Memorial B. 67. Turkey 

The late Patrick Hogarty in his book 'A Brief History of The Blue Caps' gives Nulty's rank as L/Cpl and further states that his first name was Henry

A long shot nevertheless!

Edited 5 October , 2022 by michaeldr

[Haggate]

Hi Jervis, Thank you for your comment and advise.

My colleague contacted the CWGC and they said he wasn't on their Debt of Honour Registry. We did lots of searches on the site to see if we could find him under different spellings but had no luck, my mum's surname was Melia and I have found her family under at least 6 different spellings. 

What puzzles me is that he isn't with family or relatives that I can find on any census returns. One of his sisters was still living in Oldham (after she married)  although it does look like his sister Ellen was thinking or in the process of emigrating when Henry died.

 

I have checked a few men already on various websites with no success but I  will have another look under the dates you have provided and see if he turns up. Which site did you find the 9 worth checking?

 

Regards Andrew

 

[Jervis]

41 minutes ago, michaeldr said:

Jervis,

You can add to your list of possibles 

PRIVATE H. NULTY 
Service Number: 10249
Regiment & Unit/Ship - Royal Dublin Fusiliers 1st Bn.
Date of Death - Died 30 April 1915
Buried or commemorated at V BEACH CEMETERY Special Memorial B. 67. Turkey 

The late Patrick Hogarty in his book 'A Brief History of The Blue Caps' gives Nulty's rank as L/Cpl and further states that his first name was Henry

A long shot nevertheless!

You are 100% correct Michael. Henry Nulty = Henry Melia as confirmed by his registry of effects record. Well done. 

Andrew 

His CWGC record is Here. 
I wonder if you search for Henry Nulty in those census records will you find him under that name? 

Edited 5 October , 2022 by Jervis

[michaeldr]

Well I'll be ...... !!!

And I must add that without your prompting Jervis, I would not have thought of rechecking Hogarty

edit to add from WO 372/15/15529 (NA UK) 

Edited 5 October , 2022 by michaeldr

[Jervis]

2 minutes ago, michaeldr said:

Well I'll be ...... !!!

And I must add that without your prompting Jervis, I would not have thought of rechecking Hogarty

Well Good thinking!
Especially as CWGC has him down as a Private which would have made him even harder to find. 

[RaySearching]

This forum never fail to supprise me, Another great result

Well done Jervis and Michaeldr

 

Ray

 

[michaeldr]

1 hour ago, michaeldr said:

PRIVATE H. NULTY 
Service Number: 10249
Regiment & Unit/Ship - Royal Dublin Fusiliers 1st Bn.
Date of Death - Died 30 April 1915
Buried or commemorated at V BEACH CEMETERY Special Memorial B. 67. Turkey 

The red circle marks the site of the Special Memorial to Lance Corporal Henry Melia (served as Nulty) 

[Matlock1418]

@michaeldr @Jervis Well done lads.  Great job.

All that needs to be done now is to more completely evidentially link the two names and present to CWGC [they always want to see sooooo much evidence!] so that MELIA can be added to NULTY's 'alias' commemoration as his True Name

M

Edited 5 October , 2022 by Matlock1418
typo

[Haggate]

Thanks everyone for your help, that is 2 men who I have been struggling with for a while and solved within days.

I will have a search to see if I can find any census records of Henry Nulty. 

Some records I have found have stated he was born and lived in Dublin which would have thrown me off the track.

First name(s)	Henry
Death year	1915
Last name	Nulty
Death day	30
Service number	10249
Death month	4
Rank	L/cpl
Cause of death	Killed in action
Regiment	Royal Dublin Fusiliers
Death place	Gallipoli
Battalion	1st Battalion.
Theatre of war	Balkan Theatre
Battalion details	-
Supplementary Notes	-
Residence	Dublin
Category	Military, armed forces & conflict
Birth place	Dublin
Subcategory	First World War
Enlistment place	Naas
Collections from	Great Britain, UK None

 

Thanks to the soldiers effects record it gives his sister Ellen's married name for me to add to his details. 

If I find anything else I will post an update.

Regards Andrew

[PRC]

Paul Nixon's site has the Regular Army Battalions of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers issuing regiment service number 10249 at some point between the 22nd January 1907 (9683) and the 4th December 1908, (10318).https://armyservicenumbers.blogspot.com/2009/06/royal-dublin-fusiliers-1st-2nd.html

In the WO97 series of pre-war leavers, 10236 James Summerly attested at Galway on the 31st August 1908, enlisting for 12 years on a 7 and 5 split and 10251 Patrick O'Brien attested at Dublin on the 10th September 1908, also enlisting for 12 years on a 7 and 5 split.

So on a standard short term enlistment of 12 years there would be a very good chance Henry was still in the Army at the time of the 1911 Census, which may explain his "absence" as far as a search for Henry Melia is concerned.

I'm not picking him up on the 1911 Census of England & Wales when the 1st Battalion were recorded at Ahmednagar and the 2nd Battalion were at Aldershot.

In keeping with the normal practice on the 1911 Census of Ireland the men at the Regimental Depot at Naas, County Kildare are likely to be recorded just by their initials. There are a number of H.N's recorded aged between 18 and 21 at Military Barracks in County Kildare. I don't think Henry is one of them, but difficult to be certain. There is also one in the Military Hospital at the Curragh Camp , but like the rest of the residents his actual unit is not identified.

Of course Henry Nulty\Melia could have been on a 3 and 9 enlistment instead and so would have been back in civvy street at the time of the census, or he could have been in transit \ non-military hospital, etc. and so missed being picked up by the censuses.

Cheers,
Peter

Edited 5 October , 2022 by PRC
Redid the maths using my fingers :-)

[Machalovich]

On a tangenital point to this, both Melia and (Mac)Nulty are names most commonly found in West Ireland, in particular in Co. Mayo where Henry's father was born. Perhaps Nulty may have been the surname of relatives or family friends in Oldham which inspired the alias?

[Haggate]

I have found this on Ancestry and was now wondering if he was adopted by his aunt and uncle, If Elizabeth Dowling turns out to be the sister of Margaret, Henry's mother? I have not managed to research anything on Margaret before she moved to Oldham, Lancashire.

I am going to contact the person who has been researching this family tree to see if she knows anything. She does have a sister Margaret b 1860 . on the tree which may be Henry's mother

 

 Name: Henry Nulty Gender: M (Male) Birth Date: 1893 Birth Place: Dublin, Dublin, Leinster, Ireland Death Date: 1915 Death Place: Turkey, Turquie (Turkey) Father: Joseph Nulty Mother: Elizabeth Dowling View on Geneanet: https://gw.geneanet.org/francelt?n=nulty&oc=&p=henry

 

1901 census 

 

Name:	Henry Nulty
Gender:	Male
Marital Status:	Single
Age:	8
Birth Date:	abt 1893
Birth Place:	Dublin City
Residence Date:	31 Mar 1901
House Number:	3
Residence Place:	Margaret Avenue, Mountjoy, Dublin, Ireland
Relation to Head:	Son
Occupation:	Scholar
Religion:	Roman Catholic
Condition:	All Intelects
Language Spoken:	English only
Literacy:	Can read and write Household Members Age Relationship Joseph Nulty 48 Head of Family (Head) Eliza Nulty 48 Wife Margaret Nulty 18 Daughter Bridget Nulty 9 Daughter Rose Nulty 12 Daughter Anne Jane Nulty 15 Daughter Patrick Nulty 5 Son Henry Nulty 8 Son Joseph Nulty 20 Son Thomas Nulty 23 Son John Nulty 17 Son   Regards Andrew

[michaeldr]

Just received this from Mike Crane who by happy coincidence is on the peninsula at this time

Very many thanks Mike and enjoy your research there in the field, with best regards Michael

[Haggate]

Wow, thank you very much Michael and Mike.  I would like to also thank you Michael for the suggestion of Henry Nulty also which set the ball rolling in finding Henry Melia

 

Regards Andrew

[michaeldr]

Andrew,

That's an interesting theory (that Henry may have been adopted into the Nulty family) and it certainly warrants further enquiries.

On 03/10/2022 at 18:37, Haggate said:

This brings me now to Henry whose picture appears in the Oldham Chronicle supplement of the 19^th June 1915 with this description under his photo. The address given is the same as Ellen in the newspaper report.

The newspaper caption beneath his photograph (see post No.1) gives Henry Melia using Ellen's address at 21 Canterbury Street.
One possible (?) explanation for this might be that, while staying at his sister's address he reverted (unofficially) to his birth-family's name in order not raise too many questions from over-prim neighbours as to why, if they were brother and sister living under the same roof, they did not have the same name. In short, by reverting to Melia, Henry Nulty was protecting his sister's reputation.

[Haggate]

Hello Michael, 

The family tree I have checked doesn't have any information about Margaret Dowling apart from her birth I suppose they possibly don't know that she moved to Oldham and married there, the father for Margaret which is on her marriage certificate is Richard Dowling which is the same as the father for Elizabeth her sister in Dublin.

I need to do some more research to determine if  Henry was taken to be brought up with family in Dublin.

Henry's mother died on the 22nd December 1894 in Oldham.  His sister Mary was 4 years old and Ellen was 7. Their father Richard Melia may have thought he could cope with the older children but not a baby. He had sisters in the Oldham area but one already had 6 children by 1894 another was possibly a widow by 1894 with 2 young children and another seems to vanish after her marriage in 1871 , possibly emigrated?

Regards Andrew

Edited 6 October , 2022 by Haggate

[RaySearching]

Just a small additional piece of the jigsaw

His MIC shows his medals were not claimed

(officer in charge of records  Dublin requests authority re disposal of medals)

[Haggate]

I have just had a reply from someone regarding Henry

"Henry was in the census ok and I found details of the war over the years but never found his birth.
Thank you so much for getting in touch Joseph Nulty/Elizabeth Dowling are my greatgrandparents"

It looks like they will be able to fill lots of gaps in their family tree now also.