7012728 Francis GLOVER, Royal Ulster Rifles

Hello there and and truly sorry for late reply. For some reason am only seeing it now. Your question about the burial pic. Up until a few months ago I had no idea who’s it was until I seen an identical picture on the Royal Ulster Rifles museum Facebook page. Someone had donated a photo album to them full of pictures and thankfully they had labels!!! So it the funeral of a man called Paddy MaGowan of 1st Royal Ulster Rifles in Shanghai on the 24th October 1937. His death caused political outcry.

 

Hi Andrew

By the looks of it, it would appear that your Grandfather:

• was part of the 1st Battalion Royal Ulster Rifles during their time in Hong Kong and India before the war
• at some point he transferred to the 2nd Battalion (Infantry battalion) - possibly because he wasn't suited to the Airborne unit that the 1st Battalion was converted into (my Dad hated flying which is party why he joined 2RUR...)?
• 2 RUR landed on Sword Queen White at Hermanville Sur Mer at around midday on 6th June as part of the third wave and suffered minimal casualties - see D Day Landing Craft Markings for some interesting detail on where and how they landed
• they assembled in central Hermnaville before marching inland to Periers sur le Dan where they stayed overnight
• on the afternoon of the 7th June D Company advanced on Cambes Wood (at Cambes en Plaine) without realising that the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend had recently dug in there and as a result D Company suffered severe casualties
• a full Battalion advance was launched on 9th June during which the Battalion took Cambes but suffered further severe casualties including eleven Officers and one hundred and eighty two Other Ranks either killed or wounded
• over the following month 2 RUR held Cambes in their foxholes pending the advance on Caen but suffered further casualties, mostly from shelling
• based on the casualty list I suspect that he was wounded in either the first or second advance on Cambes (and most likely the second) as the volume of casualties on and around those days were so high that perhaps they were not able to identify the precise date
• the best way to obtain full details of where he was and when would be to obtain a copy of his service records
• in the meantime, you can find out more about this time and the Battalions subsequent progress though France, Belgium, Holland and finally Germany at 2nd Battalion Royal Ulster Rifles in WW2

I hope this helps, it is also quite possible that you could find him in the 2 RUR photos at - 2nd Battalion Royal Ulster Rifles in WW2: 2 RUR Gallery - as most of the group photos were taken just prior to D-Day.

Cheers.

Quis Separabit

 

Intrigued by the Shanghai death I had a quick look:

From: Newsletter 8: Finding Wee Paddy

Then a fuller account, which is quite moving, especially how his grave was found in 2013: Patrick McGowan - WartimeNI Mark Felton was involved, as he was then Shanghai-based and there is an excerpt from a film about him.

 

How amazing! Thanks

 

There are short histories of 1st RUR in India via: 1 RUR on the North West Frontier. | Royal Irish - Virtual Military Gallery

 

Many thanks!