Private James Henry (1893 – 1918) Georgina Henry Coleraine Museum Collection ames Henry lived in Castleroe before moving to His very last letter home was to Georgie, sent on the 24th Taylor’s Row, Coleraine. In January 1915, he enlisted October 1918, when he was back at the Front in France. Jat Finner Camp and from there travelled to the Front. “Been getting it pretty hard these last few weeks But I am What we know of James’ time at war is recorded in letters glad to Say we are still going forward think there should that he sent home to Coleraine. Be Big Changes in a few months now let us Hope so anyway.” By 1918 Henry had been at the Front for over two years. In a letter to his father, sent on 28th March 1918, he writes James was killed in action on 8th November 1918, 3 days from the base hospital, having been wounded in the leg by before the Armistice was signed. He is buried in Doulers machine gun re: Village in France. “aer 4 days of the worst days ghting ever have been in France and I am very sorry to say that our casualties are Georgina, James’ sister, kept all his correspondence and very heavy and I doubt there is a ne lot of our boys went passed it down to her children, George Leighton and Isobel under so I am lucky to be here today alive and kicking.” Trussler (nee Leighton), who very generously donated them to Coleraine Museum. There are 121 letters in the On the 19th July 1918 James writes to his sister, Georgie from collection and 94 postcards dating from 2nd October 1915 to the Convalescent Hospital in Bray, Co. Wicklow. 24th October 1918. “I got the (u) I took it on wensday night But I am a bit better now there is about y of us has got it here and nearly all the nurses are Bad to.” Death Penny Coleraine Museum Collection Dr McIlroy (1874 – 1968) Dr McIlroy inspecting tents at Troyes. Courtesy of Glasgow City Archives nne Louise McIlroy was born in Loughguile in In June 1918, Dr McIlroy’s new orthopaedic department 1874. Her father Dr J. McIlroy (later of Ballycastle), (for ‘helping our wounded Serbian allies’) is described as: Aa medical practitioner and Justice of the Peace, ‘A canvas shed has been erected where carpenters are ... educated his four daughters to a very high standard for making hospital ward furniture,... Some of [the patients] the time. A. Louise graduated in 1898 - the rst woman are making beautiful stonework designs ... the thistle in Glasgow to earn a Doctorate in Medicine and then the and Serbian eagle feature largely ... most of the wards are rst female gynaecological surgeon at the Royal Inrmary making gardens outside the barracks’. Glasgow. In recognition of her services she was awarded the Dr McIlroy and other female medical graduates oered French Croix de Geurre avec palme, French Medaille des their services to the government. Aer rejection by the Epidemies, Serbian Order of St Sava and the Serbian Red War Oce, Dr Elsie Inglis, founder of the Scottish Womens Cross. In 1920 she was appointed an Ocer of the Order of Suragette Federation was inspired to start a hospital of the British Empire (OBE). ‘our own’, with inuential supporters. The Scottish Women’s Hospital Foreign Service, set up with the aim of using all In 1921 she became the rst female full professor at a female sta to care for the Allied wounded, became known University – Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the for its surgical brilliance and administrative eciency. Dr London School of Medicine for Women and was made a McIlroy went to France, then Serbia and Greece, with their Dame in 1929 for her services to midwifery. Girton and and Newnham Unit. Working under canvas and maintaining high hygiene standards in the time before antibiotics were available, she wrote home: ‘we are hoping to (teach) the French the enormous advantages of the open air and sunlight for septic wounds. Our results have been simply extraordinary, no antiseptics at all.’ Dr A. Louise McIlroy with The Grand Mufti (Turkish) and his adjutant in Salonika Courtesy of Glasgow City Archives Sir Denis Henry (18641925) © National Portrait Gallery, London orn in Cahore, Draperstown, Denis Stanislaus Henry In November 1918, Henry was appointed Solicitor-General worked as a solicitor in Coleraine before winning the for Ireland and, the following month, successfully retained Bparliamentary seat of South Derry in the elections of his parliamentary seat against the Sinn Fein candidate May 1916. Standing as a Unionist, Denis was the rst Roman Louis Walsh, to serve a second term as MP for South Derry. Catholic elected to represent a Unionist constituency in The 1918 elections represent the last occasion in which a Ulster. Catholic Unionist would win a seat in Ulster. Henry pursued a successful legal and political career As a Unionist, he did not take a seat in the revolutionary rst through the challenging period which polarised Irish Dáil Éireann which was formed following the 1918 elections. communities following the events of 1916. In the following years, Henry would go on to be appointed the Attorney General of Ireland, and later the rst Lord “He felt very strongly that religion and politics Chief Justice of Northern Ireland. In 1923, he was awarded a were totally dierent … if a Protestant, there was no baronetage to become Baronet Cahore. obligation on one to be a Unionist … and in reverse, he could not see why a Catholic could not be a Unionist.” Sir James Henry on his father’s career. Lieutenant Henry Blayney Owen Mitchell (18641925) Sara Marguerite (Rita) Baxter. It is thought that Blayney Mitchell carried this photograph of his ancée Rita with him while at war. Coleraine Museum Collection he eldest son of Mr and Mrs Henry Mitchell, A letter from Mitchell to his mother dated 10th April 1918 St. Winifred’s Coleraine, Mitchell received his describes his journey from Clausthal to Clingendaal, The Tcommission in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers on 25th Hague. At Cologne train station they were taken down to September 1914 as a Second Lieutenant. cellars and locked in until 5am. Mitchell describes them as “lthy and we were crowded in, the one I was in had over He was one of the rst local men to be awarded a Military 20 men and eleven ocers.” On arriving at Clingendaal, he Cross in 1916, writes, “I cannot realise that I’m not dreaming wandering “for conspicuous gallantry whilst in charge of a about in a mansion all full of oak panelling, tapestry, machine gun during a fearful gas attack on pictures, curtains, beautiful old furniture, not to mention 27th – 29th April.” nurses, English nurses to look aer us. Phil and I have two Coleraine Chronicle 17th June 1916 rooms one opening o the other and are in luxury.” Mitchell moved to the Royal Flying Corps and, while acting Mitchell’s ancée, Sara Marguerite (Rita) Baxter, daughter as an observer for the pilot Second-Lieutenant P. F. Heppell, of Sir William Baxter of Coleraine, received the large silver was shot down behind the German Lines. medal in her history degree nals at Trinity College Dublin in 1918. She was suering from the u while sitting her “The most striking point of all is the great exams. consideration I have received at the hands of the Germans, who have done all in their power to add to Aer the war, Blayney Mitchell and Rita Baxter married in my comfort. I could not have been treated better in 1921. Blayney became one of the His Majesty’s Inspectors England, and shall, under any circumstances, always of Factories. appreciate their kindness.” Heppell’s account of their capture, Coleraine Chronicle, 1916 Prisoner of War Identication Card for H.B.O. Mitchell. It records his rst billet at Hotel Royal, Scheveningen. Coleraine Museum Collection Hugh Thomson (1860 - 1920) t any rate, the cheerful news from the Front few other commissions during the First World War. Due to helps one along … If one could keep out of this, in 1918, he found work in a department at the Board of one’s mind the mutilation and wiping out of Trade – the ‘Commission Internationale de Ravitaillement’. the splendid young lives one could be happy about things this winter”. During his time at the Commission, Thomson suered from recurrent spells of illness. His health had been troubling him Spielmann, M. H. and Jerrold, W. C., Hugh Thomson: his art, his letters, for a number of years and alongside this was his anxieties his humour and his charm, London: A. & C. Black, 1931 regarding his son, John, who was on active service in France. Thomson’s friends, who knew he was struggling, Born in Coleraine in 1860, Thomson, is regarded as one of petitioned Lloyd George to grant the artist a pension. In May the top three book illustrators of his time. Aer working 1918 he was granted a Civil List pension of £75. for Marcus Ward & Co. in Belfast, he le for London in 1883 where he began working for Macmillan & Co. publishers. As Armistice approached in 1918, Thomson is pleased to see works of art being restored to galleries and museums. In 1917, Sir Isidore Spielmann asked Thomson to create He wrote, “How delightful it is to see the glowing old cartoons to accompany his “Another Open Letter to Herr favourites coming out again at the National Gallery.” Maximilian Harden” pamphlet. Aer seeing the illustrations some people questioned why Thomson hadn’t been employed to produce war propaganda.