McDonald, 11 and 15 R Irish Rifles

[Chris_Baker]

15/318 Pte Solomon McDonald. Served with 11th Royal Irish Rifles (South Antrim) in France, from 9 December 1915. Finally discharged in December 1918 but believed to have served only 11 months in trenches. Service papers long gone, medals docs not particularly revealing.

I wonder if any Royal Irish experts can help flesh out this description? In particular, does anyone know of press mentions of him being wounded?

He lived at 25 Fife Street, Shore Road, Belfast; he was a riveter by trade and was a foreman in a shipyard. He joined the Ulster Volunteer Force and was an Antrim Volunteer, having joined at Fortwilliam. At this time his UVF OC was a Captain Ryall.

[museumtom]

N@MP have a book for sale 'The history of the first 7 battalions of the Royal Irish Rifles in the Great War @ £18.50. I have sent for it myself. If you are not interested in buying a copy I can let you know whatever relevant data is there on your relative, trenches duty etc.

I have not got it yet but look forward to it immensely.

Tom

[markinbelfast]

What may be of interest is that he didnt sign the covenant which I thought was a prerequisite for membership of the UVF.

25 Fife Street was Mary Magee.

I have the history of the 11th batt of the Rifles from Bordon to thiepval if interested...pm me your postal addy and i'll send to you...just send her back when finished...shes pocketsized

[Chris_Baker]

Hello Mark

Thanks for that. Questions:

How do you know he didn't sign the covenant?

What does "25 Fife Street was Mary Magee" mean, exactly?

[Desmond7]

Chris - re the covenant. The public records office NI has all the various signatories of the Ulster Covenant from Lords to binmen online. Do a browse for PRONI Ulster Covenant.

Then it's only a matter of keying in a name. Wonderful resource.

Des

[curranl]

Hi Chris/Tom,

The book Tom mentions is "The history of the first seven Battalions of the Royal Irish Rifles in the Great War" by Cyril Falls. The book is very good at the Battalion level, giving good detail of Battalion movements, battles etc. It hardly ever mentions an individual other ranks man. I had a quick look at it last night, but couldn't find any reference to your man.

It has to be said that the book is true to it's title - there are very few mentions of any battalions other than the first seven and where the mentions do occur, they are only in the most general terms.

Regards,

Liam.