WW1 AND WW2 SERVICEMENS GRAVES IN DONEGAL
Throughout County Donegal there are graves of servicemen who died during World War 1 and World War 2.
They died either from their plane crashing here, their boat hitting a mine off our coast, their boat coming down and their body washed ashore. Many reasons, many bodies. Many are very young, some unidentified. As we are out and about taking photographs of Donegal and in particular the churches and graveyards of County Donegal we find them and photograph them. We have gathered some of them here along with the details from the headstone. The place of burial is first together with information from the stones and this is first followed by the photograph of the graves of those listed in the information piece. If any of these are your relative we will be happy to forward you by email a photograph of the gravestone of your relative. Just use the contact page to let us know. Click on any of the photographs to enlarge. |
NAMES ON THE GRAVES ALPHABETICALLY
The town or village that person is buried in is in brackets after the name. Burgess W. (Buncrana)
Clucas Joseph (Buncrana) Fairman E.A.L. (Stranorlar) Fraser G. (Buncrana) Freeman A. (Dunkineely) Harrison T.J. (Buncrana) Johnson W. (Buncrana) Long F. (Dunkineely) MacCuish R. (Buncrana) Mattock W.H. (Buncrana) McGuffick H. (Buncrana) Mutter E.W. (Buncrana) Neve F.D. (Buncrana) Robbin E.G. (Dunkineely) Sheriff A.W.S. (Buncrana) Sim P. (Kilcar) |
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BUNCRANA, Christ Church, Church of Ireland
1. W. H. MATTOCK - Ch..Eng.R.ARTFCR.RN 269340 - H.M.S "Hecla" - 3rd September 1918 2. T. J. HARRISON - Stoker 1st Class RN.N.S.S. 105282 - H.M.S. "Silene" - 8th October 1918 - Age 27 3. JOSEPH CLUCAS - Stoker Petty Officer RN. 301619 - H.M.S. "Michael" - 10th October 1918 - Age 36 4. R. MAC CUISH - Deck Hand RNR. 18329 - H.M.TR. "John Corwarder" - 17th December 1918 - Age 23 5. G. FRASER - Deck Hand RNR. 1995 - H.M.TR "William Biggs" - 8th July 1919 6. E. W. MUTTER - Able Seaman RN.S.S. 6441 - H.M.S. "Delphinium" - 12th July 1919 - Age 22 7. H. MCGUFFICK - Greaser MMR. 654651 - H.M.S. "Virginian" - 21st August 1917 8. W. BURGESS - Petty Officer RN. 209113 - H.M.S. "Liverpool" - 27th October 1914 - Age 30 9. W. JOHNSON - Deck Hand RNR. 9518 - H.M.TR. Lobelia II - 19th April 1917 10. F. D. NEVE - Able Seaman RN.T/20190 - H.M.S. "Nicator" - 7th April 1918 - Age 21 11. A. W. S. SHERIFF - Able Seaman MMR. 915946 - R.F.A. "Dapper" - 30th April 1918 - Age 19 Christ Church, Buncrana |
DUNKINEELY ~ The Old Kilaghtee Graveyard
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1. LONG - Private F. LONG 16839 - Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers - 9th July 1916 - Canada
2. ROBBIN - Sub-Lieutenant E. G. Robbin, RCN - SS "Nerissa" - 30th April 1941 - Aged 21 Old Killaghtee Church and Graveyard |
DUNKINEELY ~ St. Peter's Church of Ireland, Killaghtee
1. FREEMAN - 556746 Trooper A. Freeman The Nottinghamshire Yeomonry - 2nd July 1940 Age 31
St. Peter's Chruch of Ireland, Killaghtee, Dunkineely
St. Peter's Chruch of Ireland, Killaghtee, Dunkineely
FANAD ~ Unknown Graves
UNMARKED GRAVES ~ FANAD
Fanad Lighthouse
Near Fanad lighthouse is a field where the bodies of German, and possibly British, WW2 soldiers are buried. There are no formal gravestones but just rocks standing where a body is buried. You could drive past this field and never know what it holds but we happened to notice the strange arrangement of stones and found the man who owns the field to ask what they were for. He told us that soldiers who died, maybe when their plane crashed or perhaps soldiers from boats that had sunk of the coast were buried there by local people. He said that as a very young boy he remembered some German soldiers in uniform coming and taking some of the bodies home to be reintered in Germany. There are no names on the stones.
HALIFAX AIRCRASH
Halifax Memorial overlooking Tullan Strand
Near the top of Roughy Walk, Bundoran and overlooking the long sandy beach of Tullan Strand, there is a memorial to the 8 men killed when their aircraft crashed at the Fairy Bridges, Bundoran, at 18:40 hours on the 23rd of January 1944.
They had been travelling in what was known as the 'Donegal Corridor', an airspace route over south Donegal, north Leitrim, and north Sligo which loosely allowed WW2 craft to pass over neutral Ireland.
The eight men killed in the crash are listed on the memorial stone (see names below). According to eye witnesses, two of the crew, Clarence Scott and Norman Gwozski, had been in the tail of the aircraft which broke off after crashing and landed in the sea below. Their bodies were never recovered.
The memorial reads:
"Erected by the Adamic and Dawson families, Canada.
In memory of the crew of the Halifax Aircraft that crashed at Tulland Strand on 23-1-1944.
F/O Vladimir Adamic
W/O Frank Ash
F/O Fred E. Dawson
P/O Norman Gzowski
Sgt. D. P. Hewitson
Sgt. F. C. E. Hussey
F/O Clarence Scott
W/O Pilot Llyod Upshall
Halifax LK 704-518 Squadron - Tiree, Scotland"
They had been travelling in what was known as the 'Donegal Corridor', an airspace route over south Donegal, north Leitrim, and north Sligo which loosely allowed WW2 craft to pass over neutral Ireland.
The eight men killed in the crash are listed on the memorial stone (see names below). According to eye witnesses, two of the crew, Clarence Scott and Norman Gwozski, had been in the tail of the aircraft which broke off after crashing and landed in the sea below. Their bodies were never recovered.
The memorial reads:
"Erected by the Adamic and Dawson families, Canada.
In memory of the crew of the Halifax Aircraft that crashed at Tulland Strand on 23-1-1944.
F/O Vladimir Adamic
W/O Frank Ash
F/O Fred E. Dawson
P/O Norman Gzowski
Sgt. D. P. Hewitson
Sgt. F. C. E. Hussey
F/O Clarence Scott
W/O Pilot Llyod Upshall
Halifax LK 704-518 Squadron - Tiree, Scotland"
KILCAR ~ St. Matthew's Church
In the graveyard surrounding the old church ruins of St. Matthew's, Kilcar, there is one WW1 gravestone in the far right-hand corner. The stone reads:
1919085 SAPPER - P. SIM - Royal Engineers - 7th August 1940 - Age 30
1919085 SAPPER - P. SIM - Royal Engineers - 7th August 1940 - Age 30
STRANORLAR ~ Church of Ireland
Sgt. E. A. L. Fairman
Near a boundary wall in the Church of Ireland graveyard, Stranorlar, we found this grave ~ you can see photographs of the headstone and it's location in the graveyard in the slide show below.
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The stone reads: 1381374 SERGEANT E.A.L. FAIRMAN, PILOT ROYAL AIR FORCE. 18th APRIL 1942 AGED 27
"GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN THAN THIS, THAT A MAN LAY DOWN HIS LIFE FOR HIS FRIENDS"
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The stone reads: 1381374 SERGEANT E.A.L. FAIRMAN, PILOT ROYAL AIR FORCE. 18th APRIL 1942 AGED 27
"GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN THAN THIS, THAT A MAN LAY DOWN HIS LIFE FOR HIS FRIENDS"
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