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Friday 18 February 2022

Europeana 1914-1918 Project

The Europeana 1914-1918 team have advised me that they have published my story. 

You can view it by clicking this link:

https://www.europeana.eu/en/item/2020601/https___1914_1918_europeana_eu_contributions_4903


Best regards,
The Europeana 1914-1918 team


About the Europeana 1914-1918 Project

Background

Europeana 1914-1918 is based on an initiative at the University of Oxford where people across Britain were asked to bring family letters, photographs and keepsakes from the War to be digitised. The success of the idea – which became the Great War Archive – has encouraged Europeana, Europe’s digital archive, library and museum, to bring other national or local institutions across Europe into an alliance with Oxford University. The collaboration brings European stories online alongside their British, German, Slovenian, Luxembourgian, Irish, etc. counterparts in a World War One stories collection.

What we are doing

The project is collecting memorabilia and stories from the period of the Great War (1914-1918).  This phase of the project is focussing on European items: letters, postcards, photographs and stories from Germany, Luxembourg, Ireland, Slovenia and the UK.

Roll of Honour - Belfast Banking Company Limited - Booklet

 

Roll of Honour - Members of the staff of the Belfast Banking Co. Ltd. who have joined His Majesty's Forces.


This small, 20 page booklet would probably have been published near the end of the Great War. All details have now been transcribed into the individual biographies.

How many of these would be in existence now?

My apologies for the poor quality of some of the photographs.




















Milligan, Frederick Albert Woods




2nd Lieutenant Frederick Albert Woods Milligan
was born at Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada on 4th January 1896 to William George Milligan and Elizabeth Milligan nee Campbell.

In 1901 Fred (5) was living with his great-aunt Jane McKenney in house 2, Culfore, Ballymascanlon, Co. Louth and his parents and his sister, Bertha Alma (9).

In 1911 Frederick is boarding with the Armstrong family in house 24, Drumcar, Co. Louth.  

Following his education at the Educational Institute, Dundalk, Frederick joined the Belfast Banking Company and is recorded as working in Enniskillen and Drogheda branches. Gertrude Plunkett signed the Bankers Guarantee. She may have been a relation or family friend, the Honourable Gertrude Plunkett (*) of Ballymascanlon House, Dundalk.


Belfast Bank - Bankers Guarantee ledger sheet

Frederick volunteered and enlisted into the Leinster Regiment with Service Number was 7/2205. His Medal Index Card records his first theatre of war as France from 1916.


F A W Milligan - Medal Index Card

He was serving with the 7th Bn. Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers as a 2nd Lieutenant when he was killed in action on 29th April 1916 aged 19. Frederick is buried in the Philosphe British Cemetery, Mazingarbe, Pas De Calais, France.   



The Belfast News Letter of 11th May1916 reports:


Frederick is remembered on Ireland's Memorial Record:


Administration of the estate was granted at Armagh to Susan V McKenney, Spinster.  Milligan's effects were £81 14s 8d.


Milligan is also remembered on the Drogheda War Memorial.  My thanks to John McCormick of the Facebook group 'War graves & memorials, Northern Ireland' for the following photograph.



(*) Gertrude (1841-1924) was an Irish aristocrat from Co. Louth. She was one of six children to Thomas Plunket (1792-1866) a junior Church of Ireland Clergyman who later became the Bishop of Tuam, Killala and Achonry and after his father died became the 2nd Baron Plunket. Her mother was Louise Jane Foster of Fanevalley, Co. Louth and MP for Dunleer. She was the granddaughter of William Plunket, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, who became the first Baron Plunket. Gertrude lived with her sister, Katherine who inherited from her mother one of the family’s ancestral homes, Ballymascanlon House, near Dundalk.

Keown, Henry Eugene


Lieutenant Henry Eugene Keown

was born in 1891 to Thomas Heron Keown, Resident Secretary, Life Assurance (1901 Irish Census) and Sarah Jane Keown nee Lewis. They had married on 15th March 1883 at St Mark's Church, Dundela, Belfast. Thomas' occupation is reported as a Bank Clerk. His address is Dundela Villas, Belfast.

In 1901 Henry (10) was living in house 7, Rosetta Avenue, Belfast with his parents and 3 siblings; Thomas Heron (15), Richard Lewis (14) and Jeannie Sterling (3). There were 2 servants, Agnes Gartlan and Beatrice Ellen Dunleavey also present in the house.

Henry would have joined the Belfast Banking Company around 1908. His father and later his mother and sister also signed the Bankers Guarantee. He is recorded as working in Head Office and Central branches.


Belfast Bank - Bankers Guarantee ledger sheet


Belfast Bank, Head Office, Waring Street


Belfast Bank, Central branch (Donegall Square North)

In 1910, Henry became the local Scoutmaster for the Bloomfield Patrol.

By 1911 Henry was living in house 42, Dundela Avenue, Belfast with his parents and 2 siblings; Richard Lewis and Jeannie Sterling. A servant, Kate Supple was also present in the house. Henry's occupation is recorded as a Bank Official and his father's as a Branch Manager Insurance.

On 'Ulster Day', 28th September 1912, Henry signed the Ulster Covenant at the City Hall, Belfast giving his address as Dundela Villas, Strandtown, Belfast.

In September 1915, Henry volunteered and enlisted into the 7th Bn. Royal Irish Rifles and attained the rank of Lieutenant. His Medal Index Card records Henry's first theatre of war as France from May 1916.


H E Keown - Medal Index Card

The Belfast Banking Company 'Roll of Honour' booklet records Keown as serving in the 6th Bn. Royal Irish Rifles. The booklet also states that he was 'previously wounded' with his last known address 'in France'.

The Belfast News Letter of 26th May 1915 reports:


The Belfast News Letter of 15th September 1916 reports:


Henry was awarded the British War Medal and the British Victory Medal. The Medal Roll records that he was attached to the Dublin Light Infantry for a while.


H E Keown - Medal Roll

Following his demobilisation after the Great War, Keown returned to work in the bank.

In addition to banking, Keown returned to Scouting. Aidan Campbell in his book, 'Belmont' describes the picture below:

"A later photograph of the 10th Scout Troop  in 1921 in front of a large semi-detached property called 'Dundela Villas' on Dundela Avenue. .... Scoutmaster Harry Keown is sitting in the second row (with moustache and holding dog) outside his family home".


[Photo courtesy of 10th Scout Troop, Andrew Totten]

Henry was a member of the Belfast Banking Company Sports Club on 26th March 1945 paying 5 shillings subscription. In March 1947, he was working in Central branch.

Retirement came in 1952 and he died on 15th May 1965. Probate recorded him appointing his sister as executor.


The Belfast Telegraph of 11th May 1978 reports the death of Jeannie Keown, sister of the late H E Keown.