McKee Patrick Joseph
Second Lieutenant
3rd Battalion attached 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Rifles
Killed in action on 10 August 1917
No known grave
Commemorated:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium (Panel 40)
Holywood and District War Memorial
Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) War Memorial
Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) Book of Remembrance
Journey of Remembering Belfast Book of Honour
BIOGRAPHY
The death of Second Lieutenant Patrick Joseph McKee was reported in the 25 August 1917 edition of the Newtownards Chronicle under the headline Holywood Officer Killed. The report stated that both of his parents were dead and that he had been gazetted from a cadet to the Royal Irish Rifles on 22 November 1916. Prior to the Great War he lived at 49 Trevor Street, Holywood and he was a member of Malone Rugby Club.
Patrick Joseph McKee joined the Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) Officers’ Training Corps (OTC) on 1 November 1915 and in the QUB Book of Remembrance his date of birth is recorded as 1 November 1889.
Second Lieutenant Patrick Joseph McKee was posted to the Front early in 1917 and he was killed in action on 10 August 1917 during an attack on Westhoek Ridge. A great many soldiers died that day.
In the Belfast Book of Honour, it is recorded that Patrick Joseph McKee was born in Belfast, baptised in St Mary’s Roman Catholic Church and educated at St Mary’s School and King’s College London.