2nd Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (British Army)
Date Of Birth:
31/08/1896
Died:
21/03/1918 (Killed in Action)
Age:
21
Summary
Robert McIlrath was the son of Sam and Martha McIlrath. He was born on 31st August 1896 near Kilrea. They were a farming family, living on the Magherafelt side of Kilrea. Robert McIlrath enlisted in Kilrea. Lance Corporal Robert McIlrath was serving with the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers when he was killed in action on 21st March 1918. He was 21 years old.
Pozieres is a village 6 kilometres north-east of the town of Albert. The Memorial encloses Pozieres British Cemetery which is a little south-west of the village on the north side of the main road, D929, from Albert to Pozieres. On the road frontage is an open arcade terminated by small buildings and broken in the middle by the entrance and gates. Along the sides and the back, stone tablets are fixed in the stone rubble walls bearing the names of the dead grouped under their Regiments. It should be added that, although the memorial stands in a cemetery of largely Australian graves, it does not bear any Australian names. The Australian soldiers who fell in France and whose graves are not known are commemorated on the National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux.
