McVitty, Trevor Maynard Watt

Gunner

No. 1488507, 87 Battery, 24 Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery

Died as the result of an accident on Saturday 18 May 1940 (aged 33)

Buried:

Netley Military Cemetery, Hampshire, England (Grave 446)

Commemorated:

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

BIOGRAPHY

The death of Gunner Trevor Maynard Watt McVitty (No. 1488507) was reported in the 25 May 1940 edition of the Newtownards Chronicle under the headline Ulster Soldier’s Fatal Fall.

Trevor Maynard Watt McVitty was born on July 1907 in Abbey Street, Armagh and he was a son of Methodist Minister, the Rev William Presley McVitty who was born in County Fermanagh, and Margaretta Charlotte Augusta (Gretta) McVitty (nee Moore) who was born in County Tyrone.  After the Rev McVitty retired they lived in Millisle Road, Donaghadee.

William McVitty and Gretta Moore were married on 4 July 1894 in Centenary Methodist Church, Dublin and they had at least two children:

Reginald Leopold Moore (Rex, born 18 August 1899 in Bantry, Co Cork)

Trevor Maynard Watt (born 20 July 1907 in Abbey Street, Armagh)

Gunner Trevor Maynard Watt McVitty (No. 1488507) was 33 when he died on 18 May 1940 in East Hampshire while he was sleep-walking.  He fell out of a window into the roadway and fractured his skull.  At the inquest in Southampton, it was stated that on a recent previous occasion, while on leave, he had been found standing by his bed at night thinking that reveille had been sounded.  A verdict of accidental death was recorded, and his death was registered in Winchester, Hampshire.

Gunner Trevor Maynard Watt McVitty (No. 1488507) was buried in Netley Military Cemetery, Hampshire and there is an inscription on his CWGC headstone:

LOVINGLY REMEMBERED

BY MOTHER AND DAD

Gunner McVitty’s father William died on 3 March 1956 (aged 89) in Donaghadee, his mother Gretta died on 21 March 1963, and they were buried in Ballyvester Cemetery, Donaghadee.