Friends of the Somme - Mid Ulster Branch  
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Updates for Civilian Andrew Hillis
Date Information
03/04/2020 During World War Two, Andrew became a fire watcher. He would have been in his early fifties.
03/04/2020 Andrew Hillis was born on 29th September 1884. All the children were born in the Antrim, area presumably in the Toome - Randalstown area. He was the youngest of at least ten children.
03/04/2020 Known family: Andrew Hillis. Lizzie Anne Hillis. John Hillis (born 9th August 1866). Nancy Hillis (born 29th May 1868), Thomas Hillis (born 29th August 1870), Jane Hillis (born 21st June 1872), James Hillis (born 2nd March 1874), Unnamed female (born 5th December 1876), Unnamed female (born 6th March 1878), Margaret Hillis (born 20th April 1879), Mary Hillis (born 14th November 1881), Andrew Hillis (born 29th September 1884).
03/04/2020 According the CWGC the family lived at Mullaghgawn Farm, Toomebridge.
03/04/2020 The 1901 census lists Andrew as age 14, living with the family at house 5 in Mullaghgaun, Cranfield, County Antrim. They were a farming family.
03/04/2020 The 1911 census lists Andrew as age 21, living with the family at house 3 in Mullaghgaun, Cranfield, County Antrim.
03/04/2020 Andrew Hillis was the youngest son of the late Andrew and Elizabeth Hillis. Andrew Hillis and Elizabeth Simpson were 19th September 1865 in the district of Antrim.
03/04/2020 Andrew Hillis lived in Dumbarton, Scotland. Dumbarton lies in an inlet on the west coast of Scotland which leads to Glasgow’s port.
03/04/2020 The CWGC record civilian Andrew Hillis as a ‘fire watcher’. He is listed as the on of the late Andrew and Elizabeth Hillis, of Mullaghgawn Farm, Toomebridge, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, his is also listed as the husband of Mary Hillis, of Edzell, Glasgow Road, Dumbarton. Andrew is record as being injured on 7th May 1941 at Edzell, Glasgow Road and thereafter dying at Killearn Hospital.
03/04/2020 This entailed spells of duty on the roof of buildings to smother any incendiary bomb in a section with sandbags or, if a fire had already started, to drench it with water using a stirrup pump and a bucket of water until the fire brigade took over. The Luftwaffe followed this fire raising exercise by dropping HE bombs that caused the fires to spread even more. There were many fatalities and casualties amongst the ordinary civilians as well as the police, Fire and Ambulance services who were taking the injured to over-worked hospitals.
03/04/2020 Andrew Hillis was injured at Edzell, Dumbarton on 7th May 1941, possibly in the course of his job.
03/04/2020 Andrew Hillis died at Killearn Hospital on 24th September 1941. Killearn is a few miles north of Dumbarton.
03/04/2020 There was an RAF Edzell on the east coast of Scotland, but this is not thought to be the location of the incident.
03/04/2020 It is not known where Andrew Hillis is buried. The CWGC records that his Reporting authority was Stirling County, Scotland.
03/04/2020 Andrew Hillis is commemorated in the Civilian War Dead Roll of Honour. Of the many civilians of the Commonwealth whose deaths were due to enemy action in the 1939-1945 War, the names of more than 67,000 are commemorated in the Civilian War Dead Roll of Honour, located near St. George's Chapel in Westminster Abbey, London.
03/04/2020 Andrew Hillis became the husband of Mary Hillis.
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