Morgan, Robert John (Robert)
Sergeant
No. 9931, 1st Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers
Killed in action on Sunday 28 January 1917 (aged 23)
Buried:
Caterpillar Valley Cemetery, France (Grave XXV. H. 4)
Commemorated:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Bangor and District War Memorial
Royal British Legion (Bangor Branch) Memorial Plaque
Comrades of the Great War (Bangor Branch) Album in North Down Museum
Bangor Parish Church of Ireland Church (St Comgall’s)
BIOGRAPHY
Robert John Morgan was born on 20 April 1893 in Main Street, Bangor and he was a son of Thomas and Jane Ritchie (sometimes Mary) Morgan (nee Boal, sometimes Boals) who were married on 1 August 1879 in Newtownards Parish Church of Ireland Church (St Mark’s). Thomas Morgan, a clerk from Bangor, was a son of Thomas Morgan, a gasfitter. Jane Ritchie Boal from Movilla Street, Newtownards was a daughter of William Boal, a shoemaker. She was born in Poyntzpass, Co Armagh.
The Morgan family lived at 63 Main Street, Bangor.
After working for many years as a clerk for Bangor Urban District Council (he was Secretary to the Joint Burial Board and the School Attendance Committee), Thomas Morgan worked as a cycle agent, tobacconist and confectioner in Bangor and he and Jane (Mary) had at least twelve children:
William (born 16 March 1880 in Main Street, Bangor)
Ellen Jane (born 30 December 1881 in Main Street, Bangor)
James (born 28 May 1883 in Main Street, Bangor)
Robert (born 19 February 1885 in Main Street, Bangor; died of tuberculosis 14 May 1887)
Ethel (born 24 October 1886 in Main Street, Bangor)
Anna (born 25 October 1888 in Main Street, Bangor)
Frederick (born 28 June 1890 in Main Street, Bangor)
Charles (born 18 April 1892 in Main Street, Bangor)
Robert John (born 20 April 1893 in Main Street, Bangor)
Bertha (born 4 May 1894 in Main Street, Bangor)
Clara (born 23 July 1895 in Main Street, Bangor)
Henry Herbert (born 15 July 1896 in Main Street, Bangor)
Their mother Jane (Mary) died of heart disease in Main Street, Bangor on 6 January 1907 (aged 43) and their father Thomas married Helena Nixon on 25 September 1907 in St Anne’s Church of Ireland Church Belfast.
Thomas Morgan died on 21 January 1933 (aged 80) and Helena Morgan died on 30 March 1947 (aged 83). Helena was buried in an unmarked grave in Bangor Cemetery Newtownards Road, Bangor.
Robert John Morgan joined the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers around 1911 and was stationed initially in Omagh. Two of his brothers were also on active service during the Great War, Frederick in the Royal Navy and James with the Canadian forces.
Sergeant Robert John Morgan (No. 9931) served at the Front with the 1st Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and he was 23 when he was killed in action by shellfire at Amiens on 28 January 1917.
Sergeant Robert John Morgan (No. 9931) was buried in Caterpillar Valley Cemetery, Longueval, Somme, France and he is commemorated on Bangor and District War Memorial; on the Royal British Legion (Bangor Branch) Memorial Plaque; in the Comrades of the Great War (Bangor Branch) Album in North Down Museum (Page 44) and in Bangor Parish Church of Ireland Church (St Comgall’s).