Friends of the Somme - Mid Ulster Branch  
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Date Information
12/05/2020 01381
13/10/2016 No dear one was near him to mark his soft replies
13/10/2016 The 1901 census lists Samuel as age 17, working as a farm servant at house 9 in Movenis, Bovagh, County Londonderry.
13/10/2016 Samuel McElfatrick married Hessie Doherty on 20th May 1902 in the district of Coleraine.
13/10/2016 They had five children. The last was born in 1914.
13/10/2016 Family, Samuel John McElfatrick, Hessie McElfatrick, Samuel James McElfatrick (born 10th August 1903), Thomas McElfatrick (born 1st December 1907), Annie McElfatrick (born 7th April 1910), Robert McElfatrick (born 10th June 1911), Hessie McElfatrick (born 28th March 1914).
13/10/2016 The 1911 census lists Samuel John as age 30, living with his family at house 3 in Caulhame, Bovagh. Samuel was an agricultural labourer.
13/10/2016 Samuel enlisted in Garvagh.
13/10/2016 He went to France in October 1915.
13/10/2016 Private Samuel McElfatrick was serving with the 11th Battalion of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers when he was killed in action on the first day of the Battle of the Somme on Saturday 1st July 1916.
13/10/2016 Private Samuel McElfatrick has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial. The Thiepval Memorial, the Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, bears the names of more than 72,000 officers and men of the United Kingdom and South African forces who died in the Somme sector before 20 March 1918 and have no known grave. Over 90% of those commemorated died between July and November 1916.
13/10/2016 His wife Hessie later wrote the following poem which was published in the local paper every year on his anniversary:-
13/10/2016 My noble husband lies in his blood soaked garments through
13/10/2016 In a nameless grave unknown lies the heart that beat so true
13/10/2016 Samuel John McElfatrick was the son of James and Mary McElfatrick. Samuel was born about 1881 in Tamlaght, near Kilrea.
13/10/2016 And they laid him sad and lonely all in his lowly grave
13/10/2016 No loving one was near him to close his soft dark eyes
13/10/2016 No stone marks the grave where my husband lies so lone
13/10/2016 In a nameless grave unknown with his blood soaked garments through
13/10/2016 No more bugle will call our darling one
13/10/2016 Rest, noble soldier, all in your grave unknown
13/10/2016 But we will know you, we will find you among the good and true
13/10/2016 Then you will wear a robe of white for your blood soaked garments through
13/10/2016 Daddy, dear daddy, good night, good night
13/10/2016 Hessie McElfatrick remarried later, to Mr James Glass.
13/10/2016 The CWGC record Private Samuel McElfatrick as the son of Mrs Mary McElfatrick. He is also recorded as the husband of Hessie Glass (formerly McElfatrick, nee Doherty), of Cooleyrammer, Garvagh, County Derry.
13/10/2016
13/10/2016 The book ‘Garvagh and Aghadowey Heroes 1914-18’ features Samuel on pages 29 and 30.
13/10/2016 He sank, faint and weary, among the famous brave
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