1st Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (British Army)
Date Of Birth:
01/08/1896
Died:
22/03/1918 (Killed in Action)
Age:
21
Summary
Samuel Spillane was the youngest son of John and Maggie Spillane. He was born on 1st August 1896. He was one of seven children. They lived in Mormeal, Tobermore, County Londonderry. His father was a Farmer and Civil Bill Officer. Private Samuel Spillane was serving with the 1st Battalion of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers when he was killed in action on the second day of the German Spring Offensive on Friday 22nd March 1918. He was 21 years old. The battalion held out against the Germans until almost all the battalion were killed, wounded or captured.
Pozieres is a village 6 kilometres north-east of the town of Albert. The Memorial encloses Pozieres British Cemetery which is a little south-west of the village on the north side of the main road, D929, from Albert to Pozieres. On the road frontage is an open arcade terminated by small buildings and broken in the middle by the entrance and gates. Along the sides and the back, stone tablets are fixed in the stone rubble walls bearing the names of the dead grouped under their Regiments. It should be added that, although the memorial stands in a cemetery of largely Australian graves, it does not bear any Australian names. The Australian soldiers who fell in France and whose graves are not known are commemorated on the National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux.
