and Bar, MiD, served in both World Wars€¦ · +U.S. paratroops land on Corregidor Island Acknowledgments - Ballymena Observer, Fitzroy Presbyterian Church, London Gazette, IMW -

February 16, 2019

remembrance ni

Ballymena doctor William Chesney, MC and Bar, MiD, served in both World Wars

A tribute on the anniversary of his death in 1979

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William McMeekin Chesney, MC and Bar, MiD, was studying medicine at Queen’s University (and living at 23 India Street) when he joined the Officers’ Training Corps on 03/11/1911.

He remained a member of the OTC until he graduated from Queen’s with a medical degree in 1914 and received a commission in the Royal Army Medical Corps (Special Reserve), being attached to the 14th Field Ambulance.

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The benedictine Convent in Ypres where Chesney carried out his duties to the wounded and dying was incessantly shelled in the hostilities.

In early June 1915, he was Mentioned in Despatches and, on 22/06/1915, he was awarded the Military Cross for conspicuous gallantry during fighting in the Ypres Salient in Belgium. At the time, William Chesney was in charge of a Dressing Station located in the Irish Benedictine Convent, which was destroyed during the bombardment. Throughout the action, Chesney was impressed by the quiet unassuming bravery of the nuns which “... steadied me up like a tonic ...”.

During the war, William Chesney was wounded on two separate occasions and, on 29/11/1917, the London Gazette announced that he had been awarded a Bar to the Military Cross. The citation stated: “For conspicuous

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gallantry and devotion to duty when in charge of stretcher bearers. He continually visited the forward aid posts throughout the day and supervised the evacuation of the wounded under very heavy shell and machine gun fire. Though wounded, he refused to quit his post until he had rendered a valuable report on the evacuation of the wounded. He worked with indefatigable energy and great courage throughout.”

He was promoted to the rank of Major in May 1918 and after the armistice in 1918, he served as part of the Army of Occupation in Germany. He also served in India before retiring from military service in 1921 to take up General Practice in Birmingham.

In 1919 he had married Nora Mary Burns from Belfast and they had two daughters, both of whom pursued hospital careers. In 1939, William Chesney was recalled to duty with the RAMC, but saw Home service as Deputy Assistant Director of Medical Services in Southampton and then as Assistant Director of Medical Services (with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel) in Liverpool.

In 1945, after his second retirement from military service, William Chesney returned to general practice until his retirement, at the age of 70, in 1963. He died on

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16/02/1979, at the age of 86. His obituary in the British Medical Journal (24/03/1979), stated that he left behind a “reputation of service, erudition, courage and honour which few could hope to emulate.”

William McMeekin Chesney was related to General Francis Rawdon Chesney FRS FRGS, a famous British explorer and engineer, who had demonstrated the feasibility of a canal across the isthmus at Suez. He was also connected with two Antrim men who were very successful in Australia – Sir Charles Wilson and his nephew, Sir Samuel McCaughey (1835-1919). Fitzroy Avenue Presbyterian Church War Memorial, First Ahoghill Presbyterian Church RH

Eight Fitzroy church members awarded Military Cross Lt. Col. Chesney was one of eight members of Fitzroy Church to be awarded the Military Cross. The others were:

Captain (later Major) Samuel Burnside Boyd Campbell (Royal Army Medical Corps)

Lieutenant Culbertson Jackson (Royal Irish Rifles)

Lieutenant James Sinclair Jackson (Royal Engineers)

Lieutenant Norman Todd Martin (Royal Field Artillery)

Captain Arthur Norman McClinton (Royal Irish Rifles)

Captain (later Major) John Henry Alexander Patton (Royal Irish Rifles), also awarded a Bar to the MC, and

Lieutenant Martin Shaw (Royal Garrison Artillery).

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In remembrance - February 16 Representing their comrades who died on this day

WW1

+RUSSELL, ThomasRN. Blacksmith 1st Class. 341077. HMS Bacchante. Died 16/02/1919. Age 43. Born Annalong. Son of the late Thomas and Ellen Russell, of Co. Down; husband of Mollie Russell, Saunders St., Gillingham. Gillingham (Woodlands) Cemetery, Kent

WW2

SINGAPORE AND HMS SULTANSultan was the title of the RN shore base, named after a hulk which had previously served in that supply and maintenance role.

+BELL, James DRN. Able Seaman. D/SSX32827. HMS Sultan. Died 16/02/1942. Age 21. He had been at sea two years. He had been an active member of Lambeg Jubiolee Company of the Church Lads’ Brigade. Son of John and Emily Bell, Mill St., Hilden. (Belfast Weekly Telegraph 24/04/1942). Plymouth Naval Memorial, Panel 101. Lisburn WM

+BOYD, David WilsonRM. Marine. PLY/X10030. Force Z. A member of the Royal Marines detachment in the battleship HMS Prince of Wales which was sunk by Japanese aircraft off the Malayan coast on 10/12/1941 together with the battlecruiser HMS Repulse.

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Having survived that tragedy, Marine Boyd died 16/02/42 during the battle for Singapore. Age 21. Listed as missing, presumed dead, during the evacuation of Singapore. Husband to Charlotte Boyd, Belfast. Plymouth Naval Memorial, Panel 102

+McKILLEN, RobertRM. Corporal. PLY/X 1456. Died: 16/02/1942. Age: 23. HMS Sultan. Sultan was the RN shore base at Singapore. There were a significant number of personnel killed on this date in the defence of Singapore. Son of John and Elizabeth McKillen, Glengormley. Plymouth Naval Memorial, Panel 74

+BOYD, David WilsonRM. Marine. PLY/X10030. Force Z. A member of the Royal Marines detachment in the battleship HMS Prince of Wales which was sunk by Japanese aircraft off the Malayan coast on 10/12/1941 together with the battlecruiser HMS Repulse. Having survived that tragedy, Marine Boyd died 16/02/42 during the battle for Singapore. Age 21. Listed as missing, presumed dead, during the evacuation of Singapore. Husband to Charlotte Boyd, Belfast. Plymouth Naval Memorial, Panel 102

+MILLAR, Robert RobinsonRN. Ordinary Seaman. D/JX 170164. Died 16/02/1942. Age17. Force Z. Survivor of HMS. Prince of Wales. Presumed killed. Missing after the invasion of Singapore. He had been in the Service nine months. Born Carrickfergus 1925. Son of James and Agnes Millar, Irish Quarter West, Carrickfergus. (Belfast Weekly Telegraph 24/04/1942). Plymouth Naval Memorial, Panel 101. Carrickfergus Town Hall Memorial Plaque

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Remembrance Ni have research in progress for the following -

COLEMAN, William Desmond, Royal Artillery, from Warrenpoint

POTTS, Stewart, HMS Sultan, from Lisburn

PRESTON, William, HMS Caroline, from Belfast

+MORGAN, John Edward

RAFVR. Sergeant (Flight Engineer). 992269. Died 16/02/1945. Aged 32. Son of John Henry and Jane Morgan, of Croesfaen; husband to Mary Morgan, of Portadown. Groes-Faen (St. David) Churchyard. Glamorganshire

On this day 1940 +HMS Cossack, a Royal Navy destroyer, moves into neutral Norwegian waters to claim its merchant men from the German ship Altmark. Germany and Norway both protest the action.

1940

The British destroyer Cossack, enters a Norwegian fjord, captures the German freighter Altmark, former supply ship of the Graf Spee and frees 300 British merchant seamen who were captured from vessels sunk by the Graf Spee in the South Atlantic.

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Japanese troops marching through Fullerton Square, Singapore. 16th February 1942 (IWM photograph)

1942

+Donnitz orders all available U-boats in the Atlantic to attack British and American shipping off the US eastern seaboard. German U-boats, with their deck guns, bombard oil storage facilities and refineries on the Dutch islands of Aruba and Curacao in the southern Caribbean.

+The Australian Prime Minister Curtin calls the surrender of Singapore ‘Australia’s Dunkirk’.

+Tojo outlines Japan’s war aims to the Diet, referring to “new order of coexistence” in East Asia.

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Two pictures of the same man - as a pre-war actor and as a prisoner of the Auschwitz camp.

Witold Zacharewicz, a Polish film actor of the 1930s, was murdered in Auschwitz 76 years ago today, on 16 February 1943. 

1943

+Dr. Mildred Harnack-Fish, a member of the German resistance sentenced to death by the German government, is beheaded at Berlin’s Plotzensee Prison

+The Russians take Kharkov and Voroshilovo after nine days of heavy street fighting.

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+Norwegian SOE Commandos are parachuted into the mountains 40 miles north of the German ‘heavy water’ plant at Telemark. They met up with the reconnaissance party, which had arrived the previous October.

1944

+The British Air Minister says that bomber losses for 1943 were 2,369 U.K. and 997 U.S. planes down.

+The Japanese pressure in Arakan forces the British to retreat.

+Kesselring launches seven divisions in a second major attack against the US 5th Army’s bridgehead at Anzio.

+The U.S. Navy pounds the Japanese base at Truk in the Caroline’s.

1945

+U.S. forces begin the intensive bombardment of Iwo Jima, 600 miles South of Japan.

+A USN Task Force reports pounding targets around Tokyo.

+The remaining Korps of the 11th SS Army launch their attacks in support of ‘Operation Sonnenwende’.

+U.S. paratroops land on Corregidor Island, a Japanese stronghold in Manila Bay.

+U.S. paratroops land on Corregidor Island

Acknowledgments - Ballymena Observer, Fitzroy Presbyterian Church, London Gazette, IMW - Imperial War Museum

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remembrance ni

The remembrance ni programme is overseen by Very Rev Dr Houston McKelvey OBE, QVRM, TD who served as Chaplain to 102 and 105 Regiments Royal Artillery (TA), as Hon. Chaplain to RNR and as Chaplain to the RBL NI area and the Burma Star Association NI. Dr McKelvey is a Past President of Queen’s University Services Club. He may be contacted at [email protected]

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