Friends of the Somme - Mid Ulster Branch  
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Date Information
12/05/2020 01323
12/01/2019 To clasp his hand in a better land,
12/01/2019 From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 6th April 1918:
12/01/2019
12/01/2019 HARTE – In loving memory of our dear son, Private Jack Harte, royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, who died of wounds on 22nd March 1918.
12/01/2019 ‘In health and strength he left his home,
12/01/2019 Not thinking death was near,
12/01/2019 It pleased the Lord to bid him come,
12/01/2019 In his presence to appear.
12/01/2019 Someday, we know not when,
12/01/2019 Never to part again.'
12/01/2019 That you would never return
12/01/2019
12/01/2019 Ever remembered by his sorrowing sister, Teanie.
12/01/2019 Some day we hope to meet him,
12/01/2019 With a true brave heart you did your part,
12/01/2019 Deeply regretted by his sorrowing father, mother, sisters and brothers, Boyne Row, Castledawson.
12/01/2019 We little thought when you went away,
12/01/2019 Are closed in death’s cold chill.
12/01/2019 And the lips that spoke so kind to me,
12/01/2019 The fond true heart is still,
12/01/2019 'His loving face and kindly smile
12/01/2019 And the victor’s crown have won.'
09/01/2019 Imagine four of us dodging around that old canal bottom, chucking rifle grenades, rapid fire and Lewis gun fire at a force of the enemy who, if they had not thought us at least a hundred strong from the row we were keeping up, must have come out and eaten us up. We would dodge up to the mouth of the gully and rip up a few volleys and then back to our places, from where we slung over the grenades.
09/01/2019 Going back into the bed of the canal, where we could command a view of the mouth of the gully, we built up a barricade of stones and put McIlroy behind it with the Lewis gun, and Magill beside him to fill magazines. Harte and I went forward, one on each side, to a depression in the embankment. To get at us in this position, the Germans had to expose themselves at the mouth of the gully, and when they did so we opened up and drove them back, each time with some casualties. You would scarcely believe it, but we never laughed so much in our lives.
09/01/2019 From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 2nd March 1918: South Derry Heroes – How They Won Military Crosses
09/01/2019
09/01/2019 Here is the story of how four South Derry soldiers won the Military Medal during the Cambrai push in November last. The facts were related by Lance Corporal William Shanks and Lewis Gunner Jack Harte, two of the heroic four, and both natives of Castledawson. Their companions in the gallant exploit were Private Malcolm Magill (Magherafelt) and Lewis Gunner T McIlroy (Upperlands). On the day following the Cambrai battle these for formed part of a fighting patrol of fifteen, which included an officer. Their duty was to explore a large triangular area uncrossed by the British in the advance, and lying along the hollow of the Du Nord Canal.
09/01/2019 At this point there was a lock on the canal; surmounted by a ruined lock house and the canal, now a dry bed, had two branches separated by a high embankment. Jack and I jumped up on the embankment to peep over, and instantly a beetle bomb was thrown at us, but fortunately it buried itself in the bank. Connecting the main course of the canal with one of its branches was a deep gully and on looking up this, the officer perceived that it was full of Germans with a machine gun. Our officer, and the rest of our comrades, now rushed off to bring up reinforcements from the 14th Battalion (Y.C.V.’s) on our left, and as he said nothing to us four, we decided to stop where we were.
09/01/2019 Then along came another doubting Thomas in the shape of a young lieutenant, who persisted in walking backwards and forwards across the mouth of the gully to show us what he thought of our ‘yarn’. When the Germans did again show themselves he was so flabbergasted that he should stood and pointed his cane at them and then dropped, shot through the chest, dying later.
09/01/2019 There was yet no sign of our reinforcements, and we knew from the sounds in the gully that the Germans had been reinforced. Jack rushed the Lewis gun to the mouth and let her rip just as they came out with an officer at their head. Back they went helter skelter and back came Jack out of direct range. Our ammunition was now almost exhausted, and we got off our packs preparatory to making a scoot for it when our last round had been fired.
09/01/2019 Private Grumbley, from Coleraine, who had lost his company, blundered along our way at a quiet moment, and we could not convince him that he was sitting at one of the early doors for the Kingdom Come, until the Germans made another rush down the gully and appeared almost at his side. The look of surprised incredulity on his face as he involuntarily brought up his rifle and banged into them, with a ‘Good ___ Billy’, was so ludicrous that I rolled over laughing, and for fully two minutes was unable to put a bullet in a rifle. He got wounded on the throat with a ricocheting bullet.
09/01/2019 Just them McIlroy and Magill drew our attention to what was happening overhead. Talk about laughing! It just reminded us of sodding someone at home and dodging around a corner. There were the Germans bayonet charging the old lock house, ten yards above us to the right, thinking it held the main garrison.
09/01/2019 From half past two until nearly five, the four of us held them up without receiving a scratch, and when the reinforcements came up later, from the Young Citizens, they had seven killed and a number wounded. They held the position for some time, but ultimately were driven out. We had only half a magazine left when we were relieved.’
09/01/2019 Private Harte distinguished himself on the previous day also, when the battalion was held up by an enemy machine gun, by rushing forward his Lewis gun and wiping out the death dealing obstruction. Lance Corporal Shanks is the same ‘Wee Billy’ who carried the message through the shell inferno of Thiepval Wood in March 1916, which probably saved the lives of hundreds, and which was ‘the talk of the whole Ulster Division at the time’, according to comrades who were there.
09/01/2019 We were quietly jogging along, says Lance corporal Shanks, with our rifles slung over our shoulders, and though we could hear the tick-tock of a German machine gun, it sounded so far away to our right we imagined the enemy were at least a mile away. Jack Harte was just in front of me, and he and I were laughing over something, when suddenly the officer jumped back from a corner in a trench we had reached, exclaiming as he ripped out his revolver:- ‘Look out boys! There’s a machine gun in action just around the corner.’
06/01/2019
06/01/2019 From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 2nd March 1918: Castledawson
06/01/2019 The following soldiers have been enjoying home leave:- Lance Corporal William Shanks, M.M.; Lance Corporal Bob Woods; Private Jack Harte, M.M.; Dan McCormack, Francis Hueston, John Anderson, Australians; George McCracken and James McKnight.
18/07/2018 Private Harte’s brother, Edward Harte, also served in the war,
17/07/2018 Signaller Edward Harte and Privates Robert Irwin and Matthew J McAnary, all natives of Castledawson and members of the 1st Battalion Inniskilling Fusiliers, which has recently returned from India for service in France, were given a few days leave last week and visited their homes in the village. When the three joined the colours eight years ago the first battalion was on the point of leaving for foreign service, so they have been absent from their home for that time, and have been stationed in Malta, Crete, China and India. Signaller Harte has gained a number of proficiency certificates in his special branch, and all three look fit, and are looking forward with the professional soldier’s eagerness to active service.
17/07/2018
17/07/2018 From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 6th February 1915: Edward Harte (brother of Jack Harte)
18/05/2018 Jack Harte was a member of Castledawson U.V.F.
18/05/2018
18/05/2018 Mr John Fulton, the new commander of the Castledawson U.V.F., presented Mr George Weir, who now commands the twenty-five who have gone, with a dressing case, on behalf of the section commanders of the company. Commander Weir replied on behalf of himself and the men for all the gifts, and he and his fellow Volunteers would have an opportunity of seeing Berlin before they again saw Castledawson. The remainder of the evening was spent in dancing. Enthusiastic scenes were witnessed on Tuesday morning, when Commander Weir and his companions departed for Finner Camp by the first morning train. Everyone in the village was astir at an early hour, and crowds had assembled at the volunteer headquarters, when Commander Weir paraded his men. Castledawson First Company Boys Brigade, under Lieutenants Hueston and Evans, headed the procession to the railway station and Castledawson and Tullinkesey Companies U.V.F. brought up the rear. The men, who departed in high spirits amid the cheers of hundreds, were – Commander George Weir, Signaller Hiram Kerr, and Privates Bob Loughrey, Henry Loughrey, William Bradley, George Sampson, Robert Woods, George Garvin, Jim Milligan, Hugh Leslie, David Fulton, Bob Speer, Jack Harte, Tom Trainor, Sam Campbell, Frank Hueston, George McNeill, Henry Brown, Eddie Mawhinney, Tom Pickering, John Evans, Samuel White, James McFadden, George Garvin and John Overend.
18/05/2018 From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 3rd October 1914:
25/03/2017
25/03/2017 Lance Corporal William Shanks and Private Jack Harte, of Castledawson, have been awarded the Military Medal. They belong to the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers.
25/03/2017 From the Belfast Newsletter dated 12th January 1918:
14/01/2017
30/12/2015 Private John Harte M.M. is buried in St. Pierre Cemetery. The cemetery is situated on the north-eastern outskirts of Amiens, France. The 41st Stationary Hospital was based in Amiens in March 1918. He was 23 years old.
30/12/2015 John Harte was born on 31st May 1894 in Desertmartin.
30/12/2015 The 1901 census lists John as age 7 living with the family at house 37 in Castledawson, County Londonderry. His father was a linen beetler.
30/12/2015 The 1911 census lists Jack, as he was now known, as age 17 living with the family at house 11 in Castledawson Town, County Londonderry. His father was an Engine Man. Jack was a linen lapper. Jack was one of 10 children.
30/12/2015 Family: John Harte, Lizzie Harte, James Harte (born 5th April 1886, died 27th August 1898 aged 12), Edward Harte (born 30th December 1887), Maggie Harte (born 2nd January 1890), Mary Minnie Harte (born 13th May 1892), John Jack Harte (born 31st May 1894), Christina Teanie Harte (born 20th June 1896), Andrew Harte (born 11th May 1898), Thomas Harte (born 6th April 1900), William J Harte (born 27th November 1902), Kathleen Cassie Harte (born 9th June 1905).
30/12/2015 Jack Harte enlisted at Finner Camp, County Donegal.
30/12/2015 Private John Jack Harte M.M. was serving with the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers when he died of wounds after being gassed on 22nd March 1918.
30/12/2015 Private Harte’s brother, Edward Harte, survived the war.
30/12/2015 The CWGC record Private John Harte M.M. as the son of John and Elizabeth Harte, of Castledawson, County Derry.
30/12/2015
30/12/2015 John Harte was the son of John and Elizabeth Harte. John Harte married Eliza Rocks on 4th September 1885 in the Magherafelt district.
30/12/2015 Private John Jack Harte was awarded the Military Medal (M.M.).
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