Gilmour, Samuel
Private
No. 10405, 1st Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles transferred to
No. 421490, 194th Company, Labour Corps
Killed in action on Thursday 11 October 1917 (aged 20)
No known grave
Commemorated:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Tyne Cot Memorial, Belgium (Panel 160 and 162A and 163A)
Newtownards and District War Memorial
Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI) Roll of Honour 1914 – 1919 for
Greenwell Street Presbyterian Church Newtownards
BIOGRAPHY
Samuel Gilmour was born in Edinburgh and he lived with his foster parents James and Mary Kerr at 27 George’s Street, Newtownards.
James Kerr worked as a general labourer and he and Mary had no children of their own. Samuel Gilmour also worked as a labourer.
Some four months before the outbreak of the Great War Samuel Gilmour went to Belfast where he joined the 1st Battalion Royal Irish Rifles (No. 10405) and he went to France on 19 January 1915.
On 5 March 1917 Rifleman Samuel Gilmour suffered severe shrapnel wounds in both legs in action at Bouchavesnes and it was feared that his left leg would have to be amputated. However, after several months of nursing care in Netley Hospital and subsequently in the Mater and Victoria Barracks Hospitals in Belfast, his leg was saved but he was too severely incapacitated to resume service with the Royal Irish Rifles.
Samuel Gilmour joined the Labour Corps in September 1917 and was immediately posted to the Front. Less than a month later, Private Samuel Gilmour was killed in action. His foster mother and his two sisters, Annie Dodds and Agnes Gilmour, placed a For King and Country notice in the Newtownards Chronicle.
Private Samuel Gilmour is commemorated on Newtownards and District War Memorial and in the PCI Roll of Honour for Greenwell Street Presbyterian Church Newtownards.
In some newspaper reports the surname of Samuel Gilmour Labour Corps (No. 421490) formerly Royal Irish Rifles (No. 10405) is spelt Gilmore.
The names Samuel Gilmour and Samuel Gilmore are both listed on Newtownards and District War Memorial and in the booklet produced for the Unveiling and Dedication Ceremony held on Saturday 26 May 1934 Samuel Gilmour is described as a Private in the Labour Corps and Samuel Gilmore is described as a Rifleman in the Royal Irish Rifles. Desk searches and public appeals to date have not conclusively confirmed whether these two names on Newtownards and District War Memorial relate to the same person or to two different people.