McRoberts, Thomas
Second Lieutenant
20th Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles
Killed in action on Monday 13 August 1917 (aged 28)
Buried:
Tyne Cot Cemetery, Belgium (Grave LXV. E. 4)
Commemorated:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Comber and District War Memorial
Comber Masonic Lodge No. 46
Comber Parish Church of Ireland Church (St Mary’s)
Banner of LOL No. 100 (Comber Ulster Defenders) on which he is named with
Captain G.J. Bruce and Second Lieutenant E. De Wind VC
BIOGRAPHY
Thomas McRoberts was born on 28 December 1888 in Mill Street, Comber and he was a son of Thomas and Jane McRoberts (nee Cairns, sometimes Cairnes) who were married on 22 April 1874 in St Anne’s Church of Ireland Church Belfast. Thomas McRoberts (aged 21) from Belfast was a son of Francis Robert McRoberts, a farmer. Jane Cairns (aged 21) from Belfast was a daughter of William Cairns, a labourer.
The McRoberts family lived in Comber, in Mill Street and then in Castle Street.
Thomas McRoberts Senior worked as a labourer, coachman and dealer and then as a merchant, draper and house furnisher and he and Jane had eleven children:
Susanna Orr (born 14 April 1875 in Mill Street, Comber; died 13 September 1875)
Margaret (born 25 July 1876 in Mill Street, Comber; died 21 November 1876)
Elizabeth Cairns (Lizzie, born 20 November 1878 in Mill Street, Comber)
Agnes Nelson (born 22 January 1881 in Mill Street, Comber)
William Cairns (born 19 November 1883 in Mill Street, Comber)
Jane (born 28 June 1886 in Mill Street, Comber)
Thomas (born 28 December 1888 in Mill Street, Comber)
Margaret (Maggie, born 7 May 1891 in Mill Street, Comber)
Susanna (born 7 March 1894 in Mill Street, Comber)
Eleanor (Nellie, born 28 March 1896 in Mill Street, Comber)
James (born 1 June 1899 in Castle Street, Comber)
Their father, Thomas McRoberts Senior, died of cancer at home in Castle Street, Comber on 19 December 1912 (aged 56). His son Thomas McRoberts Junior was with him when he died.
Prior to the outbreak of the Great War Thomas McRoberts Junior worked as a draper and house furnisher. He was a member of the North Down Regiment of the Ulster Volunteer Force and joined the ranks of a Reserve Battalion of the 36th (Ulster) Division. From there he was sent to a Cadet Unit from which he qualified for a commission. He left for the Western Front on 30 April 1917 and less than four months later he was killed in action, on Monday 13 August 1917. His widowed mother placed a For King and Country notice in the 1 September 1917 edition of the Newtownards Chronicle.
Second Lieutenant Thomas McRoberts was 28 when he died, and he was buried in Tyne Cot Cemetery, Belgium. He is commemorated on Comber and District War Memorial; in Comber Masonic Lodge No. 46; in Comber Parish Church of Ireland Church (St Mary’s) and on the Banner of LOL No. 100 (Comber Ulster Defenders) on which he is named with Captain G.J. Bruce and Second Lieutenant E. De Wind VC.