Roamer: Recounting WWI church memorials lost in WWII’s blitz

History Hub Ulster’s Nigel Henderson is researching and writing about the lost memorials.

“Whilst the loss is unfortunate, especially for researchers,” he explained, “newspapers often recorded the names of the WWI fatalities in reports about the unveiling of the memorials. Some articles were accompanied by photographs of the memorials, and pictures survive in books and personal collections. Sadly, there is no photographic record of the memorials for some of the congregations.”

On Sunday, September 5 1920 the Newington Presbyterian Church memorial was unveiled by Mrs Samuel Jordan of Lisnagarvey and dedicated by the Reverend Thomas McGimpsey Johnstone, the congregation’s minister.

Reporting the Reverend Johnstone’s address, The Witness (Presbyterian newspaper) noted: “He could not help feeling that the names on the brass tablet did not represent all in that congregation who had died for their country. Scarcely a month went past without the death occurring of someone whose name ought to be transferred from the ordinary Roll of Honour to the tablet of the glorious dead.”

The Reverend Johnstone had buried a member of the congregation the day before the memorial was unveiled - Lance-Corporal William Walker, who had served on the Western Front with the Army Cyclist Corps and the Royal Irish Rifles from October 1915.

William had sustained gunshot wounds to his right arm in July 1916 and, in October, the London Gazette announced that he had been awarded the Military Medal for ‘Bravery in the Field.’ Lance-Corporal Walker was reported as wounded again in September 1918 and was discharged on March 19 1919.

He died on September 2 1920, aged 22, of bronchial pneumonia following an appendectomy at Belfast’s Victoria Barracks Military Hospital. William, a son of Joseph and Annie Walker of Collyer Street, was buried in Belfast City Cemetery on September 4.

The war memorial in Newington church took the form of a cabinet. A brass plaque naming 66 fatalities was set in the body of the cabinet, whilst the names of 340 members of the congregation who served and survived were inscribed on brass plaques on the insides of the doors.

The first person - and the only female - named on the fatalities plaque was VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) Nurse Margaret Cameron Young who was serving at No 2 General Hospital in France when she died of illness, probably influenza, on July 30 1918, aged 25. She is buried in Terlincthun British Cemetery at Wimille in France and is commemorated on a family memorial in Shankill Graveyard.

A memorial tablet was erected in her memory in 1920 in the minister’s room in Newington Presbyterian Church; it was also lost in the blitz. The church was rebuilt in 1951/1952 and a plaque in the foyer records that the current building replaced the 1875 building that was destroyed in 1941.

A generic bronze plaque and an illuminated Book of Remembrance in an oak cabinet were dedicated as a war memorial on Remembrance Day in 1957 - unveiled by VAD Nurse Margaret Cameron Young’s sister, Helen.

“Although the WWI Memorial in Newington church was an unusual style, it was not unique,” Nigel explained. “In Northern Ireland there are at least two other ‘cabinet’ memorials - one in Lurgan’s Shankill Parish Church, and the other is the memorial for Foyle College in Londonderry.”

The other Belfast churches known to have lost war memorials during the blitz are St James’ Church of Ireland (Antrim Road); St Silas’ Church of Ireland (Oldpark Road); St Barnabas’ Church of Ireland (Duncairn Gardens); Rosemary Street, Clifton Street and York Street Presbyterian Churches, Duncairn Gardens Methodist Church and Mervue Mission Hall in Tiger’s Bay.

If you have photographs of any of those lost memorials contact Nigel at [email protected] and he’s conducting two cemetery tours of the graves of blitz fatalities on April 25 and May 5. Full information is on History Hub Ulster’s Facebook page.

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