Irish soldier identification

[Guest Desmond6]

Hi - I am the editor of the Ballymena Times newspaper in Northern Ireland. Some years ago, I read Philip Orr's excellent - and thankfully unbiased - book on the 36th Ulster Division (The Road to the Somme).

One passage in the book has always intrigued me. It is the eyewitness account of a 'Gunner Ryan' from Tandragee who was with the 9th Royal Irish Fusiliers (Armagh Volunteers) on July 1, 1916.

According to Orr, Ryan tells how he witnessed a mortal hand to hand combat scene between a 'powerful hard wee man from Ballymena' and a German officer. Ryan speaks of 'wee Jimmy from Ballymena' lying side by side with the German officer whom he had bayoneted just as the officer had shot 'wee Jimmy'.

This is a long shot but I am trying to track down who 'wee Jimmy' could possibly be. Now, Ryan (the witness) is with the 9RIF which was recruited largely in Portadown and Lurgan districts of Co. Armagh. 'Wee Jimmy' is obviously from Ballymena and I find it strange that a Ballymena man would have joined 9RIF when most men from the Ballymena area would have been in the 12th Royal Irish Rifles (central Antrim Volunteers). I have checked the 9RIF killed in action list for July 1 and tried to match this to the CWWG site with a little success - i.e. I've been able to rule out MOST of the James's (where a home address is given) there are however, some grey areas. Can anyone help? I would hope to publish a story on this search if any success can be achieved- who knows, I might even do an article on how to trace down info about a WW1 relative.

I do know that 9RIF and 12RIR were attacking on the same front in the Ancre Valley on July 1 but I doubt that Ryan (from tandragee) would have got time to know a 'wee man from Ballymena called Jimmy' in the heat of battle. I can only assume that he would have been in the same Regt. if not section or platoon. Thank you for reading this e-mail.

[Chris_Baker]

Hello Desmond6 and welcome to the forum.

I've checked the CDROM of "Soldiers Died in the Great War". This shows places of birth, enlistment and residence of each man. There are 26 casualties with the Christian name of James who died with the 9/RIF on 1 July 1916.

Two of them came from the north-east of England. The others came from various places you would expect across Ulster. Tandragee is not mentioned.

Tandragee is just outside Portadown, right?

14170 Pte James Fulton

14217 Pte James Gordon

17556 Pte James Gregg

14309 Pte James Hewitt

14355 Pte James Joyce

14460 Pte James Magee

were Portadown men.

But it's also not far from Lurgan.

14770 Pte James Watson enlisted in Lurgan, although he was born in Shankill (no residence place given). So did 14288 Pte James Hamilton.

19888 Pte James Long lived in Lurgan

14382 Pte James Kane

14106 Pte James Corkin

were Lurgan boys.

Hope that gives you something to go on.

BTW, I checked for any soldier with the surname of James just in case, but found none.

[Desmond7]

Thanks for your help. I am now coming to the conclusion that Ryan's memory was confused (he was interviewed when an old man). However, I do have an idea that James Kane (although he enlisted in Lurgan) may have had Ballymena connections.

You have been very helpful and I would like to commend you on the dedication you show to this site. It contains a wealth of information on WW1.