Echlin, Frederick St John Ford North (Frederick)
Lieutenant
70th Squadron, Royal Flying Corps and Royal Fusiliers
Died of wounds on Wednesday 27 September 1916 (aged 27)
Buried:
Achiet-Le-Grand Communal Cemetery Extension, France (Grave IV. H. 7)
Commemorated:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
BIOGRAPHY
Under the headline Kircubbin Officer Dies of Wounds in Germany the death of Lieutenant Frederick St John Ford North Echlin was reported in the 10 March 1917 edition of the Newtownards Chronicle. From the townland of Echlinville, Rubane, Kircubbin, Lieutenant Frederick St John Ford North Echlin was the only son of the late Captain Frederick Echlin, Royal Navy who died in 1906 and a grandson of the late Rev J R Echlin JP of Ardquin, Portaferry.
Lieutenant Frederick St John Ford North Echlin could trace his lineage back to the Right Rev Henry Echlin, Bishop of Down and Connor, in the 17th Century.
Frederick St John Ford North Echlin was born on 17 February 1889 at Wood Lawn, Carrickfergus and he was a son of Captain Frederick Echlin and Lelias Echlin (nee Kerr).
Lieutenant Frederick St John Ford North Echlin was the husband of Dorothy Blanche Echlin (nee Dobree) of The Anchorage, Doyle Road, Guernsey in the Channel Islands. They were married for only a short time before Frederick died and they had one child.
Prior to the outbreak of the Great War Frederick Echlin had been working in the Federated Malay States. He volunteered for service and was commissioned on 6 March 1915 to the 5th Battalion Royal Fusiliers. He joined the Royal Flying Corps on probation on 27 October 1915 and obtained his pilot’s certificate.
Lieutenant Frederick St John Ford North Echlin was 27 when he died of wounds in German hands on 27 September 1916 and he was buried in Achiet-Le-Grand Communal Cemetery Extension, France. There is an inscription on his CWGC headstone:
IN EVER LOVING MEMORY
FROM HIS WIFE & CHILD
Another descendant of the Right Rev Henry Echlin, Private Richard Brabazon More Echlin (No. 4431) 1st Battalion Irish Guards, was killed in action on 1 November 1914 and he is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial in Belgium.