Shining a light on our men who served in the Great War
In April 2013 a committee member found a box of old lantern slides in the organ loft of Alexandra Presbyterian Church. The images were of soldiers and sailors in First World War uniforms. There were 77 lantern slides in total which were made by the famous Belfast photographer Alexander Robert Hogg. The committee minutes of Castleton Church state that in 1918 he was asked to put together a lantern slide exhibition ‘of our men at the front’ which was to be shown on 16th December 1918. Tickets were sent to the families of serving men. We assume that each family with a son serving in the Great War gave a photo for use in this exhibition.
Alexandra Presbyterian Church recognised the value of these slides in historical terms and set out on a voyage of discovery to find out who these men were, what they did and in some cases how they died. The project therefore aims to match the names on the Roll of Honour to the faces in the photos. We know that the lanterns include both men who survived and men who were killed in action.
To date we have named 44 men on the slides with help from various sources, but there are many more faces to put names to. This website aims to encourage a larger group of people to view the images and to inspire both the church community and the people of Belfast to recognise the importance of the slides as an important part of the social history of the York Road. The York Road is much the same community as it was 100 years ago. Many of the same families live there now and many will have ancestors who belonged to Castleton Church. The slides provide a cross section of the community at the time with images of officers and privates, soldiers and sailors, brothers, families and neighbours.
The importance of the stories of these men cannot be underestimated. It is over 100 years since the start of the Great War, and the people of Belfast are looking back to their ancestors who fought and died and remember their commitment, their courage and their experiences. Some of those who lived went on to suffer with war related illnesses, to face an uncertain future in a post partition society and to live with vivid and difficult memories of the friends they had lost. Some men could never tell of their experiences while others were able to share their stories with younger generations. Lance Corporal Jack Trimble of the Royal Irish Rifles joined up at the age of 15 and went on to live to the age of 98 having emigrated to New Zealand and had a family of three sons, eight grandchildren and fifteen great grandchildren. He told his story to a group of school children, the recording of which you can hear on his page.
The lantern slides have brought to the fore stories of survival, despair, hope and courage. For those who recognise a family member's image in the slides, (as we do), there is a sense of sadness that the mainly young faces staring back at us were sent into such a hellish experience that would affect the rest of their lives. Some of these men have been forgotten, in some cases they weren't even recorded on the war memorial such as Private Wilson Gray Duke of the Royal Irish Rifles.
It is easy to forget how much these families gave up, how a whole generation of young men was lost and how much the community needs to remember not only the sacrifice of those who died, but also the sacrifice of those who lived. The attempt to identify the men, their stories and their families is a way of shining a light on their lives. With no remaining veterans of the Great War, it is especially important that these faces do not become numbers or statistics. These men have names, families, memories and experiences that with research and your help, we will be able to record for generations to come.
The project aims to reconnect the congregation of Castleton (now Alexandra) with their men, but also the community of the local area and beyond. While we have no firm ideas of what journey the project will take, we hope that the slides and the stories we will uncover will have a lasting legacy on the community.
Faye Rice and Karen O'Rawe
Please note:
We have traced copyright ownership for the material used as far as we have been able, and continue to actively search for those owners we have not found. Please contact us if you are the owner of presently unattributed copyright or know who is, as we would like to obtain permission and credit the owner.
Faye and Karen. © John Baucher