Cregagh Cricket Club remembers its WWI heroes with new memorial project

At a special service on Saturday morning, officials from Cregagh Cricket Club and community representatives with gather at Gibson Park Avenue to unveil a series of storyboards – charting the men’s journey from the playing fields of their native city to the battlefields of Flanders and France.

The club’s youth chairman and club historian Graham Watt said the initial idea for a new war memorial project originated around the time of the club’s centenary celebrations in 2006.

"I’ve always been aware of the story, and wondered if I could track down information on the nine members who died – to find out what happened to them and what was their story, where exactly did they live, and even what did they look like,” he said.

“I wanted the story about the formation of the club, and these nine members, to be told, because I thought it was so fascinating myself.

"More recently, I’ve been getting asked ‘what are you going to do with all of that information,’ so we thought of the idea of the storyboards.”

Graham said he was disappointed to discover that most people weren’t aware of important aspects of the club’s rich history, and that the official name of the park is the Cregagh Memorial Recreation Ground.

Thirty-two of the cricket club’s members fought with distinction during the war, and the club is determined that their names will resonate with the membership for years to come.

“We found the Roll of Honour in the British Newspaper Archive, so we installed a memorial tablet in the clubhouse back in 2005. So the names were always there, but the stories weren’t there,” he said.

"The photographs just fascinate me. When you see a face that you can attach to a name, it just makes it more real.”

Graham said the “lost generation” of the First World War era is reflected in the loss of many of those family surnames from the club’s record books after 1918.

"I noticed in the 1920s through to the 30s a changing of the names. They were no longer the names of the guys who fought in the war.

"It was a lost generation, but you also think of the injuries, and PTSD no doubt”.

Graham said the club’s records also show that other members left to begin new lives in places as far away as South Africa.

After the war, the club and local community, raised the money to buy the land, and to erect a set of memorial gates.

"They raised the equivalent in today’s money of £40,000. When the ground was officially opened in 1923, there is no doubt there were families there who lost those guys named on the memorial.”

Local church and political representatives will also attend the service.

“The McQuistan Memorial Presbyterian Church on the Castlereagh Road played a huge part in the foundation of the club,” Graham said.

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