WW1 snippets

MEETING. Noel Anderson, Chairman of the Ballymoney & District Cultural Heritage Society, pictured along with those who attended a meeting at Riada House on Thursday night regarding the WW1 Sculpture Fund and upcoming events.INBM30-14 015SC.

When Britain declared war on Germany at 11 pm on 4th August 1914 few would have realized how lives would be changed for ever. Here are a few snippets from the WW1 years. Further snippets will be contributed in future weeks.

General George Patton who came to prominence with the first American soldiers who arrived in France 1918 (he was the aide-de-camp to General Pershing) was 5th in the 1912 Marathon in the Stockholm Olympics which we all know was won by ...........Dervock born, Kennedy K McArthur.

From 27th November 1914 under the Defence of the Realm Consolidation Act pub opening hours were restricted from noon until 3pm and from 6.30pm to 9.30pm and that afternoon closure lasted until 1988. Oh and alcohol drinks had to be watered down. So how did that help to win the war? I don’t know either.

After the battle of Loos Second Lieutenant John Kipling of the Irish Guards was killed and like countless others his body never was found. His heartbroken and embittered father Rudyard Kipling wrote the epic poem The Children.....................

‘To be senselessly tossed and re-tossed in stale mutilation

From crater to crater .For that we shall take expiation’

But who shall return our children?