R.S.O.U.'s Standards

Randalstown Sons Of Ulster are proud to be associated to the brave and fearless Ulster Volunteer Force and Young Citizen Volunteers.   Over 12 years ago the band took the decision to carry the Regimental Standards of the U.V.F. and the Y.C.V.   They considered it a honour to be given the opportunity of bearing the Standards on Her Majesty's Highway.   The band offers no shame for being represented with the colours and proudly remembers the fallen volunteers from 1914 to present day conflict.   There is a mass history behind the U.V.F. and the Y.C.V. in the greater Randalstown area.

As many would be aware when the introduction of Home Rule was about to be passed at Westminster there was much political unrest.   Sir Edward Carson had already formed the Ulster Volunteer Force in January 1913 to oppose the Home Rule and envisaged recruitment of 100,000 men.   He had boldly prepared for civil unrest.

  Massive hauls of arms were shipped into Larne (Clydevalley) and North Down.   To oppose all this John Redmond formed the Irish Volunteers in November 1913 to fight against the U.V.F., threatening to unleash a bloody war if Carson did not retreat.

Before war could be declared events in Europe had taken a downward turn.   Germany had declared war on Russia on the 1st August.   Germany had already invaded Belgium and Britain declared war against Germany on 4th August.

Obviously with the more detoriating situation in Europe, the Home Rule in Ulster was postponed for the duration of the war.   Carson and Redmond, after much deliberation and caution, advised their volunteers to enlist and fight against the common enemy - The Germans.

Three Divisions were formed in Ireland on 28th October 1914.   These were the 10th, 16th and 36th Ulster Division.

The Ulster Division consisted of three Brigades -

  * 107 Ballykinlar (Belfast Volunteers)

  * 108 Clandeboye Estate (Bangor which outreached Antrim, Down, Armagh, Monaghan and Cavan)

  * 109 Finner (near Ballyshannon Donegal which outreached Tyrone, London Derry, Donegal, Fermanagh and the Young Citizen Volunteers)

109th Brigade at Finner consisted of 3 Battalions of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and Young Citizen Volunteers of Belfast, which were later formed into the 14th Battalion RIR.

Finner Camp was not suitable for such large numbers of recruits and it was also a tented camp which served to train soldiers for the Boar War just 14 years earlier.

Military authorities required a much more applicable camp in a more centralised location.   Lord O'Neill from Randalstown made available 80 acres of his estate at Dunmore for construction of the new camp.   Construction work commenced mid October 1914 and was completed in December, exactly 2 months after the start of the war.

The camp was mostly made up of wooden huts for shelter and it was estimated 4000 men aided in erecting them under the supervision of foreman carpenter Mr Robert Smith (formerly of Messrs Gault Bros, Ballymena), with the whole project over seen by two officials from the war office.

On December 12th the transfer of the 3rd Brigade of the Ulster Division of Lord Kitcheners Army from Finner camp to Randalstown commenced.   The transfer was a massive recruiting march, marching through the towns, villages and hamlets of the province recruiting men as they went.   It tooks seven days to march 120 miles from Finner to Randalstown.   By the end of January over 4000 troops were in camp at Lord O'Neill's which at a time was only suitable for 950.

The first troops left camp on July 1915 by train to Dublin onto Holyhead to Seaford near Brighton.   After camp was set up there, troops were held until the call on 4th October 1915 of which they left Bramshott for France.

The first wounded recorded from camp was in February 1916.   Some of the most serious wounded/killed at first were Scottish soldiers.

The infamous bloody war The Battle of the Somme, which lost so many on that fateful morning on July 1st 1916 had its loss of many brave men who made the supreme sacrifice on that day.

The following now lie in peace in the splendour of the Battle Fields at Flanders surrounded by thousands of other brave men and women of who we pay tribute.

  * Private J Fulton - Age 22, Canadian Infantry, Carrifgeary, Randalstown

  * Rifleman Henry Moore - Age 21, 11th Batt Royal Irish Fusiliers, Maghereagh Road, Randalstown

  * Private William Stewart - Age 47, 24th Batt Royal Fusiliers, Randalstown

  * Private Joseph   Cunningham - Age 31, 134th Field Ambulance Royal Army Medical Corps, Randalstown

  * Private Charles McNally - Age 38, 6th Batt Connaught Rangers, Randalstown

  * Rifleman W Anderson - Age 21, 11th Batt Royal Irish Rifles, Shanes Cottage, Randalstown

  *   Lance Corporal William Alfred Moore - Age 18, 'A' Coy 11th Ba Rifles, Randalstown

  * Rifleman James Coulter - Age 19, 11th Batt Royal Irish Rifles, Druminaway, Randalstown

  * Rifleman Robert Drennan - Age 23, 11th Batt Royal Irish Rifles, Groggan, Randalstown

  * Lance Corporal John Barkley Foster - Age 21, 11th Batt Royal Irish Rifles, Andraid, Randalstown

  * Private Hugh Gilmore - Age 23, 1st Batt Royal Inniskinning Fusiliers, Staffordstown, Randalstown

  * Rifleman Frank Knox - Age 19, 11th Batt Royal Irish Rifles, Ballygrooby, Randalstown

  * Rifleman Thomas Millar - Age 18, 12th Batt Royal Irish Rifles, Randalstown

  * Lance Corporal James Smyth - Age 19, 11th Batt Royal Irish Rifles, Caddy, Randalstown

  * Captain Oswald Brooke - Age 37, 11th Batt Roy, Randalstown

 

These brave men and women shall be forever remembered thanks to the Randalstown Branch of the Royal British Legion  who have built a wonderful memorial garden in memory of the people from the Randalstown area who have paid the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

        

 

The Flanders and Picardy areas of Northern France saw some of the most concentrated and bloodiest fighting of the First World War.   There was complete devestation, buildings, roads, trees and natural life simply disappeared.   Where once homes and farms were became seas of mud-graves for the dead, while men still lived and fought.   Only one other living thing survived - the Poppy.   Flowering each year with the coming of the warm weather, it brought hope, colour and reassurance to those still fighting.

In Flanders' fields the poppies blow,

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place: and in the sky,

The Larks, still bravely singing, fly.

Scare heard amid the guns below

 

We are dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders' fields

Take up your quarrel with the foe,

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high,

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders's fields

On the Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month in 1918, the First World War ended.   Many thousands died; thousands more had been injured and scarred by their experiences.

If you have just read the history we have accumulated in the Randalstown area, do we have to justify to any Governing/Religious bodies why our Ulster Volunteer Force and Young Citizen Volunteers Standards are deemed illegal???

"We Will Remember Them"