Festival salutes those who served and sacrificed

​His wartime story is one of many to be shared at an exhibition entitled ‘Service and Sacrifice – a Festival of Remembrance’, hosted by Killyman Royal Black District Chapter No 1, Co Tyrone.

District master Paul Robinson is one of the organisers, and he says the festival follows the chapter’s successful visit to the Somme and Dunkirk in the summer, when they were accompanied by the Sgt White Memorial Flute Band, who take their name from another fatality of war.

He says the purpose of the exhibition - running from November 1 to 8 in Killyman Orange Hall, with a service being held at St Andrew’s Parish Church on November 1 at 3pm - is to “remember with pride and gratitude all those who have served”.

“We remember the men and women of the armed forces who served during two world wars, and those who continued that tradition through organisations such as the Ulster Women’s Land Army, Ulster Special Constabulary, RUC GC, and Ulster Defence Regiment CGC – later part of the Royal Irish Regiment.”

Mr Robinson says it is “vitally important that we continue to teach future generations about the meaning of service, sacrifice, courage and duty, both during the world wars and throughout the years of conflict closer to home”.

He adds: “Through this exhibition, we hope to bring these stories to life and encourage everyone, particularly our younger generation, to reflect upon the sacrifices made by those who served.”

Mr Robinson’s great-grandfather, Londoner Stephen Bullock, who was awarded the Military Cross for his courage on the battlefield and settled in Coalisland after the Great War, is one of those featured in the exhibition.

The exhibition booklet notes that Bullock’s service record spans major actions where the 36th (Ulster) Division were engaged, including Thiepval Wood during the Battle of the Somme in 1916, the Battle of Messines in 1917 and the final allied advances in 1918.

On July 1, 1916, Sergeant Major Bullock went “over the top” at the Somme, where he and his comrades were met with “relentless gunfire and shelling”.

As officers became casualties, he assumed command, “leading the men forward and consolidating their position” and, though wounded, “he refused to abandon his post”.

Forced to pull back, he was cut off while covering the withdrawal and taken prisoner – “yet fought his way out with his fists, was again severely wounded, and (later) rejoined his battalion”.

The first display in the exhibition tells the story of Captain the Honourable Viscount Northland, a member of the nobility, who was killed by a shot to the head from a sniper during intense fighting along the La Bassee canal at Cuinchy on February 1, 1915.

Thomas Uchter Caulfield Knox was born on June 13, 1882, at Northland House, Dungannon, the son of Uchter John Mark Knox, the fifth Earl of Ranfurly.

Educated at Eton, he served with the Coldstream Guards in the Boer War, having been commissioned in 1900, and six years later, joined the Yorkshire Dragoons.

Subsequently, during the Home Rule crisis, and having military experience, he became the commander of 4th (Dungannon) Battalion of the Tyrone Regiment of the Ulster Volunteer Force, which numbered 2,500 men.

He rejoined the Coldstream Guards on the outbreak of the Great War, serving in France from September 1914.

Also featured among the 16 display stands is the story of Sergeant Robert (Bertie) White, the eldest of five children who was born in Coalisland on May 26, 1914, and who grew up in a three-storey shop building on the corner of Killyman Street and Charlemont Street in Moy.

Aged 14, he was “plunged into a series of tragedies that would see him lose most of his family”.

In October 1928, his mother Elizabeth died during childbirth, and further tragedy lay ahead in March 1929, when a fire at the family’s home claimed the lives of his sister Mary and brother Freddie – his baby brother died later from injuries sustained in the blaze.

Along with his father Abraham, he later moved to Dungannon, where he joined the Bush True Blues Flute Band, LOL 163 and RBP 4.

Aged 19 in 1933, he enlisted in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, transferring to the newly formed Parachute Regiment Army Air Corps in 1943.

On September 18, 1944, during an operation in a C-47 aircraft carrying 18 men and six crew over a drop zone in Arnhem, in the Netherlands, he and his comrades came under intense machine-gun and anti-aircraft fire.

The exhibition notes: “It remains unclear how many men from the aircraft reached the ground alive; tragically, none survived the battle.”

After the war, the True Blues Flute Band was renamed the Sgt White Memorial Flute Band in his memory.

*More details about the exhibition can be found at serviceandsacrifice.co.uk