In the year that commemorated the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, Remembrance Day will provide a time to reflect on the contributions made by local people to the war effort.
Planning had already begun before war was declared. A notice in the Newry Reporter on the 26 August 1939 signalled the urgent need for Air Raid Precautions (ARP) volunteers, such as wardens, rescuers, first aiders, auxiliary fire fighters and reporters. ARP wardens ensured the blackout, which came into effect on 1 September 1939, was maintained. In the event that the town would come under attack from the Luftwaffe, 27 air raid shelters were built around the town, each with a capacity for around 60 people, and a warning siren was installed on the top of Newry Town Hall.
The Women’s Voluntary Service (WVS) organised the distribution of gas masks, with a reported 52,000 required for the region. They assisted in the evacuation of children from Belfast, and organised educational classes to help cope with rationing. Coupons were issued for food, fuel and clothes and women running households had to become ever more resourceful.
Local women, such as Lady Hyacinth Needham joined the military effort through the Women’s Royal Navy and Peggy Hall enlisted in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force. Many other women served as nurses such as Margaret Anderson and Nora Mahood.
Many men joined the armed forces - an army recruitment office was located at 97 Canal Street and local newspapers encouraged enlistment and recruitment rallies were held for local regiments. The area became temporary home to other regiments of the British Army and the United States Army. Stationed throughout the district, they practiced manoeuvres in the local countryside, prior to posting in England or abroad.
Many were wounded or killed during the conflict. Cyril Wiltshire, originally from Wales and a member of the Welch Regiment stationed in the town, married a local girl and lived in Castle Street in Newry. He was killed on 21st July 1944 when his battalion came under heavy attack from German forces in Normandy.
Michael Flood Blaney, the son of the town surveyor Charles Blaney, joined the Royal Engineers Bomb Disposal Unit on 5 December 1940. He was killed a few days later when defusing a bomb at Manor Park in Essex. He was posthumously awarded the George Cross in 1941.
Others lost their lives at sea, such as Royal Navy Petty Officer John Felix O’Connell from Camlough. He was among the 1,415 men who died when HMS Hood was sunk in the Battle of the Denmark Strait on 24 May 1941 - the greatest single shipping loss of the war.
Some locals participated in key moments of the war. Robert Caldwell, who lived in Cowan Street, Newry, was a crewmember of HMS Exeter, which was in the Battle of the River Plate, off the coast of Uruguay in December 1939 when the German battleship, Graf Spee, was destroyed. Caldwell was welcomed as a ‘local hero’ when he returned home on leave in March 1940 and was awarded a gold watch by the Young Men’s Institute in Newry.
Bernard Murphy, Chief Engineer, and Terry O’Hanlon, First Mate, were crewmembers of the Dorrien Rose, a tramp steamer, which made three trips across the English Channel during the evacuation of Allied Troops from Dunkirk in June 1940. They rescued 1,600 men before the ship’s boilers gave up. Newry architect and engineer, Major Gerald Reside, serving with the British Expeditionary Force, was one of the last soldiers to be evacuated. Merchant ships were also under threat of attack. In October 1941, Bernard Golding from Erskine Street in Newry was lost when the SS Walnut, owned by Joseph Fisher and Sons in Newry, went missing in the Irish Sea.
Miles McCann, son of Matthew McCann, owner of the Victoria Bakery, joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve as an aircraftman in 1940 at the age of 18. He was posted to the Far East and was taken prisoner in February 1942 at the fall of Singapore. He was held as a Japanese prisoner of war in Malaya before being released in September 1945.
The Second World War was experienced on both a global and local level by the citizens of Newry and Mourne. From the home front to serving abroad, many local families have their own stories to tell of the sacrifices made and experiences of living through the most destructive global conflict in history.
