| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Neil was born in Beverley on 24 Mar 1885 and baptised on 5 Apr 1885 at St John's Church, North Bar Without the son of Neil Gallagher (senior) and Mary Ann (nee Lyons) who married on 9 Jul 1880 in Beverley. Shortly after they married they emigrated to America. Their eldest son, John, was born in John's Town, Pennsylvania, and a daughter, Mary Elizabeth, was born in Rochester, New York. By early 1885 the family had returned to live on Sweep Row, Beverley and Neil senior was employed as a tanner's labourer. Mary Ann died aged 37 in 1900. His father remarried twice: in 1906 and again in 1923, and was widowed twice more before his death in 1933.
When he was eighteen years old, Neil Gallagher (junior) enlisted in the Coldstream Guards in 1903. Described as a 'Serving Soldier' in the 1911 Census, he was home on leave on census night, staying with his father in Keldgate.
Guardsman 5093, Neil Gallagher, 2nd Battalion, Coldstream Guards disembarked at Le Havre on 12 Aug 1914. The Brigade encountered the German Army in the neighbourhood of Zonnebeke, in the 'First Battle of Ypres' (19 October-22 November 1914). Pte 5093 N Gallagher (wounded) was named in the casualty lists published in the press on 11 Nov 1914. After repatriation and recovery in hospital in England, Neil was returning to his unit when he was seriously wounded a second time. He was sent to No 13 General Hospital, Boulogne, Pas-de-Calais where he died of his wounds on 10 Jan 1915. Guardsman Neil Gallagher is buried in the Commonwealth War Graves Section of Boulogne Eastern Cemetery. He was aged twenty-nine and unmarried. An 'Old Contemptible', he was awarded the 1914 Star (the Mons Star), the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.
Includes information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |