Hart, Andrew Chichester
Lieutenant
109th Company, Machine Gun Corps formerly
11th Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers
Killed in action on Saturday 1 July 1916 (aged 34)
Buried:
Connaught Cemetery, Thiepval, France (Grave I.E.28)
Commemorated:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
County Donegal Book of Honour
BIOGRAPHY
After Lieutenant Andrew Chichester Hart was killed in action on 1 July 1916 it was reported in the Press that his widow lived at 48 Westminster Terrace, Victoria Road, Bangor, Co Down.
Andrew Chichester Hart was born on 30 September 1882 in Portavela, Greencastle, Co Donegal and he was a son of William Edward Hart MA and Bessie Louisa Hart (nee Allman) who were married on 7 August 1878 in St Nicholas’s Parish Church of Ireland Church, Galway. William Edward Hart, a gentleman from Kilderry, Co Donegal was a son of George Vaughan Hart, a gentleman. Bessie Louisa Allman, a gentlewoman from St Mary’s, Galway was a daughter of Professor George Johnston Allman.
William and Bessie Hart (nee Allman) had at least five children:
Percival Henry (born 22 November 1880 in Portavela, Greencastle)
Andrew Chichester (born 30 September 1882 in Portavela, Greencastle)
Irene Mabel (born 22 December 1884 in Portavela, Greencastle)
Frances Edith (born 25 June 1888 in Greencastle)
Bessie Louisa Adelaide Isabel (born 25 November 1892 in Falmore, Carrowmena)
Andrew was ten when his mother Bessie died on 28 November 1892 of peritonitis following childbirth three days earlier (aged 38).
During the Great War Lieutenant Andrew Chichester Hart served with the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and then the Machine Gun Corps and he was killed in action on 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme – less than three months after getting married.
Lieutenant Andrew Chichester Hart and Minnie Elizabeth Hueston were married on 12 April 1916 in St Enoch’s Presbyterian Church, Belfast. Minnie Elizabeth Hueston from Belfast was a daughter of Robert Hueston, a farmer.
Lieutenant Andrew Chichester Hart was buried in Connaught Cemetery, Thiepval, France and there is an inscription on his CWGC headstone:
YOUNGEST SON OF W.E. HART ESQ., M.A. OF KILDERRY, CO. DONEGAL
Lieutenant Andrew Chichester Hart is commemorated in the County Donegal Book of Honour.