Talk on Private Robert Hamilton, Ballinode

Private Robert Hamilton from Ballinode is one of the thousands of Irishmen killed in World War I whose stories have been forgotten for nearly 100 years. Now to coincide with the centenary of the start of the Great War in August 1914, his story deserves to be told. According to his obituary in the Northern Standard, he was a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force in County Monaghan. He had signed the Ulster Covenant in Ballinode in September 1912. The UVF ranks joined the British Army to fight in World War I and became part of the 36th (Ulster) Division, headed by a Cavan man, Major General Oliver Nugent.

Private Robert Hamilton (from Northern Standard May 1918)

Hamilton enlisted in Monaghan in the Royal Irish Fusiliers (the ‘Faugh-a-Ballaghs’) when a recruitment party came to town in February 1915. He fought at the Battle of the Somme in July 1916 and was invalided at some stage so he would have returned home to Kilmore East. He left Ballinode on Easter Saturday at the end of March 1918 and returned to his unit on the western front in France, only to be killed in action three weeks later. His name is engraved on the vast Tyne Cot memorial near Ypres/Ieper in Belgium.

Tyne Cot Memorial Wall (CWGC Picture)

There is also a plaque in his memory in St Dympna’s Church of Ireland church, Ballinode which has provided the springboard for my talk on Friday 21st November 8pm in Ballinode. The talk would not have been possible without the research and interest shown by Marie McKenna and two distant Hamilton relations Ruby Heasty and Heather Stirratt.

Plaque to Robert Hamilton in St Dympna’s Ballinode Photo: @ Michael Fisher

‘Dead Man’s Penny’ with Robert Hamilton’s name in the plaque in Ballinode