Above, lost faces of youth and the Connaught Cemetary on the edge of Thiepval Wood
Four of the nine VCs awarded for the 1st July 1916, the blackest day in the history of the British Army, were won by the 36th Ulster Division. We have already heard about the bravery and self sacrifice of Billy McFadzean. Two other VCs were awarded for bringing in wounded under fire. These were won by Rifleman Robert Quigg of the 12th Royal Irish Rifles and Lieutenat Geoffrey St George Shillington Cather of the 9th Royal Irish Fusiliers.
Quigg had advanced to the assault with his platoon three times. The next morning Quigg, on hearing a rumour that his platoon officer, the 20 year old 2nd Lieutenant Sir Harry Macnaghten, 6th Baronet, reported missing on 1st July, was lying out wounded, went seven times to look for him under heavy shell and machine gun fire, each time bringing back a wounded man, thye last found only a few yards from the enemy's wire. Exhausted after several hours engaged in this gallant work he finally had to give up the search. Sir Harry, seconded to the 12th Royal Irish Rifles from the Black Watch, had twice re-formed what was left of his company in No Man's Land and led it through gaps in the German wire to be killed on the second ocassion. Before the war Quigg was a worker on the Macnaghten estate in County Antrim at Bushmills, famous for its whisky and very near the Giant's Causeway where Quigg was born, another example of the close community connections in the 36th Ulster Division. Many men from the littel town of Bushmills enlisted in the 12th Royal Irish Rifles and on the 1st July twenty-three of them died, of whom only six have known graves. Robert Quigg had the distinction of being the sole survivor of the 36th's Victoria Cross winners of the 1st July.
Quigg had advanced to the assault with his platoon three times. The next morning Quigg, on hearing a rumour that his platoon officer, the 20 year old 2nd Lieutenant Sir Harry Macnaghten, 6th Baronet, reported missing on 1st July, was lying out wounded, went seven times to look for him under heavy shell and machine gun fire, each time bringing back a wounded man, thye last found only a few yards from the enemy's wire. Exhausted after several hours engaged in this gallant work he finally had to give up the search. Sir Harry, seconded to the 12th Royal Irish Rifles from the Black Watch, had twice re-formed what was left of his company in No Man's Land and led it through gaps in the German wire to be killed on the second ocassion. Before the war Quigg was a worker on the Macnaghten estate in County Antrim at Bushmills, famous for its whisky and very near the Giant's Causeway where Quigg was born, another example of the close community connections in the 36th Ulster Division. Many men from the littel town of Bushmills enlisted in the 12th Royal Irish Rifles and on the 1st July twenty-three of them died, of whom only six have known graves. Robert Quigg had the distinction of being the sole survivor of the 36th's Victoria Cross winners of the 1st July.
Robert Quigg VC Lt Geoffrey Cather VC
Lieutenant Cather's VC was awarded for his actions near Hamel. He searched No Man's Land for several hours and brought in four wounded men under direct machine gun fire; finally he was killed bringing water to another man. Born in London, he had family connections in Portadown, and in the Irish methodist Church. He obtained his commission in May 1915 and joined an uncle and cousin from Portadown, also serving in the 9th Royal Irish Fusiliers. At twenty five Cather was the adjutant of his battalion, which was said to be one of the best in the division. Geoffrey Cather's body was never recovered and he is listed on the Thiepval Memorial to the missing. Captain Eric N.F Bell of the Royal Iniskilling Fusiliers won his Victoria Cross for a truly heroic performance outside the scope of his duties as commander of of a trench mortar battery. He advanced with the Infantry into the Schwaben Redoubt and his citation reads: " On no less than three ocassions ...he went forward alone and threw trench mortar bombs among the enemy. When he had no more bombs...he stood on the parapet under intense fire and used a rifle with great coolness...finally he was killed rallying and reorganising infantry parties which had lost their officers ". He was not yet 21 years of age.
A British Brodie Helmet from my own collection decorated by the origianal owner with Thiepval written on it.
Captain Eric Bell VC, aged 20.
The Ulster Division's attack was a remarkable feat. The Division had no Regualr battalions attched to it as stiffners, as had some of the New Army divisions. Their gains could not be xploited, as their oustanding success, in which they had overrun the most formidable and reputedly impregnable position on the Western Front, had created a deep narrow salient that left them in an isolated position causing the Ulstermen to retire. On this costliest day the Ulster Division lost more than half the men who attacked, and very sadly most of these would be left out in No Man's Land for many months where their bodies could not be recovered, to be blown to bits in later attacks on the Thiepval Ridge. Their names would appear on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing. When the division was taken out of the line two days later, it lost its distinctively Ulster Protestant nature by the necessary addition of drafts of English, Welsh and Scottish recruits that even included Irish Catholics. But like the 16th Irish Division, this would not be the end of the fighting for the 36th Ulster Division. Their would be many hard fought battles to come its way, where they would fight side by side with the 16th Irish.
" in respectful silence "
Where once poppies grew,
Visitor centers are now the norm.
Where the wind skimmed the tops of fields
People shuffle by,
Intruding on our unmarked graves
They stop and stare at a ditch,
That somehow pretends to be a trench,
In a Wood where the screams of the wounded and dying
Echoed across the Ancre Valley.
They try to imagine during their hectic schedule
What it must have been like to have been there
But only us who remain entombed in the earth of Thiepval Wood
Shall really know what it was like.
They wake and disturb the boys who sleep, who died and fell in their thousands
For friends and loved ones alike.
Why dont they leave us alone?
Soon they will have destroyed everything and nothing will remain.
Why dont they let mother nature do her work,
So that she may embrace us in her arms.
For we are the dead and in legions we lay
To walk the fields of Thiepval at night in mourning of our lost youth
For ever in silence and peace we pray,
Oh to the songs of birds, the touch of our loved ones and the wild red poppies.
Do not laugh or be disrepectful,
But remember us in your prayers and in ' respectful silence '
Visitor centers are now the norm.
Where the wind skimmed the tops of fields
People shuffle by,
Intruding on our unmarked graves
They stop and stare at a ditch,
That somehow pretends to be a trench,
In a Wood where the screams of the wounded and dying
Echoed across the Ancre Valley.
They try to imagine during their hectic schedule
What it must have been like to have been there
But only us who remain entombed in the earth of Thiepval Wood
Shall really know what it was like.
They wake and disturb the boys who sleep, who died and fell in their thousands
For friends and loved ones alike.
Why dont they leave us alone?
Soon they will have destroyed everything and nothing will remain.
Why dont they let mother nature do her work,
So that she may embrace us in her arms.
For we are the dead and in legions we lay
To walk the fields of Thiepval at night in mourning of our lost youth
For ever in silence and peace we pray,
Oh to the songs of birds, the touch of our loved ones and the wild red poppies.
Do not laugh or be disrepectful,
But remember us in your prayers and in ' respectful silence '
