WWI

The Pride Of Ulster

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Here are six panels from the shops in the Westwinds estate in Newtownards, which have replaced a UVF mural (Help Us To Help You).
Little is known about the omnibus called “The Pride Of Ulster”, except that this picture shows it at Newtownards Railway Station, Victoria Avenue, c. 1920. SAS soldier and boxer (and rugby-player) Blair “Paddy” Mayne, DSO, is portrayed in the second panel. (For more, see these posts about Mayne from 2013 and 2014.).
On the other side of the Ulster Banner in the centre is a WWII Douglas Dakota C-47, specifically “FZ692 of No. 233 Squadron, around the D-Day period in 1944. This aircraft, which was named “Kwicherbichen” by her crews, was involved in Para-dropping operations on the eve of D-Day and subsequently in re-supply and casualty evacuation missions into and out of forward airfields in the combat areas” (RAF). 
Motorcyclist Joey Dunlop is on the far right (see Race Of Legends), and above them all is a WWI board from the 1st Newtownards Somme Society (based in the Somme museum in Conlig?).
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South Belfast Volunteers

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The main panel (shown below) is a tribute to soldiers in the Great War (1914-1918), with a border of poppies and silhouetted soldiers reflecting over helmets on crosses. To the side, however, is the modern UVF volunteer (shown above), with balaclava and assault rifle.
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UVF Motor Car Corps

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The first time that the horseless carriage was used in a military operation was the Ulster Volunteers’ “Larne Gunrunning” of April 1914. By this time, there are thought to have been 350 vehicles in the Corps (Angelsey). It’s not clear whether the cars were later used by the 36th (Ulster) Division – please comment/get in touch if you can shed light on this. (For Spencer’s quote on the left, see I am not an Ulsterman.) The plaque is to (modern) UVF volunteer ‘Squeak’ Seymour.
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Brothers In Arms

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The 36th (Ulster) Division fought in the Battle Of Albert at the beginning of the Battle Of The Somme (July 1st-13th), and the 16th (Irish) in the battles of Guillemont and Ginchy in September (WP). The 10th (Irish) served at Gallipoli (and later in Greece and Palestine). The scene above, with soldiers from the 36th and 16th hand-in-hand, did not occur at “The Somme 1916”; it could perhaps have taken place at Messines in 1917 (see previously: Messines 1917).
Of the icons along the top, we see from left to right: Scrabo Tower; the green bar badge of the 10th (Irish) Division; the harp of the Connaught Rangers (battalions of which served in 10th and 16th Divisions); the emblem of the Black Watch – Royal Highlanders (the piping soldier right of centre wears a tartan patch of the Black Watch); the shamrock of the 16th (Irish) Division; the Maid Of Erin harp of the Royal Irish Rifles; Helen’s Tower/Thiepval Tower. It’s not clear why the Black Watch is included, as its battalions do not seem to have served with any of the 10th, 16th, or 36th and is a Scottish regiment rather than an Irish one. Please comment/get in touch if you can explain.
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North Down UVF

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This mural at the bottom of Kilcooley estate in Bangor has recently been repainted, with the main alteration being the “North Down UVF” replaces “1st July 1916”, focusing attention on the locals from battalion that joined the 36th and away from the Somme. (See the previous mural in 1st July 1916.)
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Messines 1917

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Two panels commemorate the Battle Of Messines in 1917 and the role of nurses in attending to the wounded. This NIHE article says that the two nurses depicted are Annie Colhoun from London-/Derry and Margaret Dewar from Glasgow. “Margaret Dewar lost her life during the battle whilst Annie Colhoun survived and was decorated for her work during the war by the French, Serbians and British Governments.” (This presumably makes her the nurse in the right-hand panel.) An Army Nursing Service page says, however, that they were nurses at Monastir in Macedonia.
“Sub cruce candida” (“under a white cross”) is the motto of the Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps, though at the time of WWI it was Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service. “VAD” stands for “voluntary aid detachment” of the British Red Cross.
The soldiers wear red hands or shamrocks on their arms. The red hand is for the 36th (Ulster) Division and the cap badge in the left panel is of the 36th. The shamrock is the symbol of the 16th (Irish) Division, and the right panel shows the cap badge of the Connaught Rangers whose battalions served in both the 10th (Irish) and 16th (Irish) Divisions in WWI. Both the 36th and 16th fought at Messines (WP).

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Our Heritage In Your Hands

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The Ulster Tower at Thiepval, France, is a replica of Helen’s Tower in Clandeboye, around which the 36th (Ulster) Brigade, formed in August 1914 from the Ulster Volunteers and Young Citizen Volunteers, began their training (see this gallery of images from North Down Museum at BBC-NI). After a year of training in Ireland and England, the Division was deployed to France in September 1915.
In the top corners are two views of the local Scrabo Tower, which can be seen to the right in the wide shot, below. Produced by muraltec.
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We Will Remember Them

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Dozens of boards to local soldiers from the 36th (Ulster) Division (by the 2016 Committee) have been added to the Mount Vernon memorial garden to the soldiers of the Great War (the mural) and contemporary UVF volunteers (the garden). For the mural, memorial stones, and outside plaque, see At Home And On The Mainland.
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Pride Of Ballymacash

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The Pride Of Ballymacash flute band, formed in 2011 from the Pride Of Prince William (bottom left) and Ballymacash Young Conquerors (bottom right), uses the emblem of the 36th (Ulster) Division, in the centre of the mural. In the background on the left is the Thiepval Memorial and, on the right, the UDR memorial statue in Market Square, Lisburn. To the left (in the second image) is a UDA plaque “In memory of fallen comrades Ballymacash B coy D battaltion, South Belfast Brigade. Quis separabit.” For a close-up of the memorial on the ground, see Death & Life.
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Who Went To War And Never Returned

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It is usually the fourth verse from Laurence Binyon’s poem For The Fallen that is quoted on memorial stones to the fallen of the WWI but here we have the third verse: They went with songs to the battle, they were young/Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow/They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted/They fell with their faces to the foe. The stone commemorates “the men of the 36th (Ulster) Division who gave their lives for King and country at the Battle of the Somme 1st July – 18th November 1916”. It is in the garden adjacent to the West Kirk Presbyterian church (Fb) on the Shankill Road. As the image below shows, the garden is also host to many small boards to individual soldier (see previously Among The Fallen | XXXVI | The Sacrifice Remains The Same).
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