MacFarlane, Albert George (Bertie)

Telegraphist

No. D/WRX 741, HMS Drake, Royal Naval Volunteer (Wireless) Reserve

Died of disease on Thursday 29 January 1942 (aged 28)

Buried:

Bangor Cemetery, Co. Down (Section 5.O Grave 181; not Section 5.Q)

Commemorated:

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Bangor and District War Memorial

Trinity Presbyterian Church, Bangor

Family grave headstone in Bangor Cemetery

BIOGRAPHY

Albert George MacFarlane (sometimes McFarlane) was born in Belfast on 12 June 1913 and he was the only son of William and Esther (Hessie) MacFarlane (nee Rodgers) who lived at 30 Glencollyer Street and later at Shelbourne, 101 Belfast Road, Bangor.  William MacFarlane worked as a plater in the shipyard and he and Hessie Rodgers were married on 9 October 1912 in Castleton Presbyterian Church, Belfast.  They had at least two children:

Albert George (Bertie, born 12 June 1913 at 30 Glencollyer Street, Belfast)

Janet Cowan (born 18 January 1915 at 147 Garmoyle Terrace, Belfast; married William Kinkead on 12 September 1938 in Ballygilbert Presbyterian Church)

Along with Stewart Templeton, Bertie MacFarlane was joint Assistant Scoutmaster of the First Bangor Company of Boy Scouts.  Stewart Templeton (aged 23) died on 10 January 1940 in a road accident during the black-out and Stewart’s brother Moore Templeton was killed in action on 4 February 1943.

Prior to the outbreak of the Second World War, Albert George MacFarlane worked for Messrs Henry Gowan and Company (Shipping Agents), Corporation Street, Belfast.  At the outbreak of war, he joined the Royal Navy as a Telegraphist and was stationed in British West Africa.  There he contracted an infection and was invalided home in the spring of 1941.  He recovered sufficiently to resume his business but became seriously ill in October 1941.  He was 28 when he died of bacterial endocarditis on 29 January 1942 at his parents’ residence and his funeral to Bangor Cemetery took place on 31 January 1942.

Telegraphist Albert George MacFarlane (No. D/WRX 741) is commemorated on Bangor and District War Memorial; in Trinity Presbyterian Church, Bangor and on the family grave headstone in Bangor Cemetery.  In one of the Roll of Honour notices published in the County Down Spectator there was the text:

I thank my God upon every remembrance of him