McCutcheon, John
Rifleman
No. 16743, ‘B’ Company, 13th Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles
Killed in action on Saturday 1 July 1916 (aged 35)
No known grave
Commemorated:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Thiepval Memorial, France (Pier and Face 15 A and 15 B)
Comber and District War Memorial
Second Comber Presbyterian Church
BIOGRAPHY
In the Soldiers Died in the Great War 1914 – 1919 database it is recorded that Rifleman John McCutcheon (No. 16743) was born in Dundonald.
In the Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects, it is recoded that his mother’s name was Catherine.
In 1911 John McCutcheon (aged 30) and his widowed mother, Catherine, lived at 7 The Square, Comber; his married sister, Mary Tompsett (aged 34), her husband, William Tompsett and their two children, John and George Tompsett, were living there too. William Tompsett and Mary McCutcheon were married on 5 November 1907 in St Anne’s Church of Ireland Cathedral, Belfast. William Tompsett (aged 23), a Private in the Sussex Regiment stationed in Victoria Barracks, Belfast was a son of George Tompsett, an architect. Mary McCutcheon (aged 25), a factory worker from High Street, Comber was a daughter of James McCutcheon, a butcher.
There is conflicting data re Mary’s age.
John McCutcheon was born around 1880/1881 in Dundonald and he was a son of James and Catherine McCutcheon.
James McCutcheon was a butcher and he and Catherine McCutcheon had at least two children:
Mary (born around 1876/1877 or 1882/1883)
John (born around 1880/1881 in Dundonald)
Catherine McCutcheon was pre-deceased by her husband.
Prior to the outbreak of the Great War, John McCutcheon worked as a labourer before he enlisted in Belfast. His brother-in-law, Private William Tompsett, was killed in action on 30 October 1914 during the First Battle of Ypres.
John McCutcheon served with the 13th Battalion (1st Co Down) Royal Irish Rifles and he went to Seaford, Sussex in July 1915. The Battalion came under the orders of 108th Brigade in the 36th (Ulster Division) and they landed at Boulogne in October 1915.
Rifleman John McCutcheon (No. 16743) was 35 when he was killed in action on the first day of the Battle of the Somme and he has no known grave.
Rifleman John McCutcheon (No. 16743) is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial in France; on Comber and District War Memorial and in Second Comber Presbyterian Church.