9th Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (British Army)
Date Of Birth:
13/06/1897
Died:
18/05/1918 (Prisoner of War)
Age:
20
Summary
John Shiels was the eldest child of Samuel and Maggie Shiels. He was born on 13th June 1897. They were farmers and lived in Mullagh, Maghera. John Shiels enlisted in Maghera. Lance Corporal Shiels was captured and became a prisoner of war. Lance Corporal Shiels died of wounds in Lazarett, Darmstadt, Germany as a P.O.W. on Saturday 18th May 1918.
Further Information
John Shiels was the son of Samuel and Maggie Shiels. Samuel Shiels married Maggie Stewart on14th February 1894 in the district of Coleraine.
John Shiels was born on 13th June 1897. He was the eldest of at least six children.
The 1911 census lists John as age 13 living with the family at house 7 in Mullagh, Maghera, Londonderry. He was still at school. His father was a farmer.
Family: Samuel Shiels, Maggie Shiels, John Shiels (born 13th June 1897), Annie Stewart Shiels (born 19th December 1899), James Shiels (born 9th March 1901), Margaret Caroline Shiels (born 27th April 1905), Samuel Anderson Shiels (born 2nd January 1908), Sara Robena Shiels (born 4th February 1910), Maude Shiels (born 6th March 1912, tbc).
John Shiels enlisted in Maghera.
Lance Corporal Shiels was captured and became a prisoner of war.
Lance Corporal Shiels died of wounds in Lazarett, Darmstadt, Germany as a P.O.W. on Saturday 18th May 1918. He was buried in Darmstadt.
From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 29th June 1918: Maghera
Private John Shiels (Mullagh), who is a prisoner of war in Germany, writes that he is slowly recovering from his injuries.
Official documentation from the Red Cross, from documents supplied by the German prisoner of war camp at Darmstadt, does not give any other details of his death.
Lance Corporal John Shiels is now buried in Niederzwehren Cemetery.
Niederzwehren Cemetery was begun by the Germans in 1915 for the burial of prisoners of war who died at the local camp. During the war almost 3,000 Allied soldiers and civilians, including French, Russian and Commonwealth, were buried there. In 1922-23 it was decided that the graves of Commonwealth servicemen who had died all over Germany should be brought together into four permanent cemeteries. Niederzwehren was one of those chosen and in the following four years, more than 1,500 graves were brought into the cemetery from 190 burial grounds including Darmstadt.
