213783 Pte. David William McNeilly British Army 12th Btn. Royal Irish Rifles from:Carrickfergus After joining up under age ,my great grandfather, David William McNeilly, enlisted in the 12th Royal Irish Rifles at the outset of the war. He along with two other men were the unit's first casualties. He and another man had shrapnel injuries while the third man died.
He moved around with the 12th until they got their orders to attack on the first day of the Somme. There with the rest of his platoon under Lieutenant Lemon they advanced to the 2nd line German trench.On the retreat he along with a corporal we're the only two left from their platoon.
Swept up by the Royal Irish Fusiliers he went over a further three times that day and survived.
Throughout the rest of the war he was with the 12th and fought in all the major battles around Ypres.
Surviving the war, he returned home,married and had a family.
When war came around again he was already in the Merchant Navy and serving on board the coal ship Corbet. On the 4th May 1941 as the Corbet was leaving Liverpool Harbour under a heavy air raid, the ship was hit by an explosion. The ship had hit a mine which had been laid previously in another air raid.
Unfortunately his luck finally ran out. On watch that night,in the panic of the getting under way, he left the ship's glasses below deck and went down to get them, leaving another seaman on watch. That man was the only one to survive the sinking ship.
Tracing my great grandfathers military history has been a revelation as nobody knew or was interested. But being interested in military history I set about it with my gran, his daughter to see what I could find. She gave me his Army book, small book, bible and some information on his Merchant navy employment.This helped greatly along with the library of books I now have.
If you haven't already done so then I recommend finding out about your past,as if you don't know where you have been, you don't know where you are headed.
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