William James Anderson

William_James_Anderson

Name:   William James Anderson
Nationality:   United Kingdom
Rank: Private
Regiment/Service:  Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers
Unit Text: D Coy. 10th Bn.
Age: 28
Date of Death: 12/08/1917
Service No: 15292
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead. KIA.
Grave/Memorial Ref: Panel 22.
Memorial: Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Ieper, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.
Additional information: Husband of Sarah Jane Anderson of Ballinacross, Knockloughrim. William Anderson was born into a farming family in Ballinahone, Knockloughrim. He was a parishioner of Termoneeny Parish Church, Knockloughrim and a member of Ballinacross purple Guards LOL 1713. He married Sarah Jane Charters, a native of Tobermore on August 2nd 1908, and subsequently fathered six children. In common with many men in the locality at that time, he was a member of “Carson’s Army”, the original Ulster Volunteer Force, having signed the Solemn League and Covenant in the Temperance Hall in Knockloughrim in September 1912. He enlisted 29/8/1914, being among the first to do so. Although we are uncertain, we can only assume that the accompanying photograph dates from the 1914-15 period. In January 1916 it was recorded that he was on his way to hospital in Devonport with arm wounds. He was killed in action at Passchendale almost a year after the birth of his youngest daughter Eileen. His grave is unknown although he is commemorated on the memorial plaque in Ballinacross Orange Hall.

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