Allan was the youngest of 15 children of Patrick and Mary Jane McCullagh of Bushmills, Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland and brother of Leading Seaman Arthur McCullagh .
After spending the day with my mum, Mary and hearing the story of my granny and Allan McCullagh again, I decided to search for information. My granny had told my mum the story many times over the years and let my mum read the letters from Allan McCullagh that granny kept in a special little box.
Allan McCullagh was a handsome young man with dark curly hair and very much in love with his sweetheart Margaret Jane Lamont.
He was born shortly after the great famine and times were hard in Ireland with very little work. Like many others during those times young men looked to the "services" for regular wages.
Allan joined the Royal Irish Regiment, "C" Company, 6th Battalion and was sent to France. While Allan was stationed there he received word he was going to be a father. He wrote back saying if he had a son to please call him Allan. He told her to remember their song, "When the fields are white with daisies I'll return" and he applied for and was granted leave to come home and marry his sweetheart.
The Records State, Private Allan Mills McCullagh was at or near the train station when he was shot by sniper fire and rushed by stretcher-bearers to the nearby dressing station (field ambulance station). He was found to be dangerously ill and taken to the hospital at Le Havre France, where he died from his wounds.
Margaret Jane Lamont had a baby boy and kept her promise to her sweetheart naming the child Allan. He grew up looking very much like his father and joined the Navy.
BEHIND THE STORY
So on returning home after spending the day with my mum I began to search for information on Allan McCullagh.
I used the information from the Bushmills War Memorial to search the Commonwealth War Graves records. Then I stumbled onto "Find a grave" and I was amazed to find Allan McCulla had been listed here.
The army records, the headstone in Le Havre, France and the War Memorial in his home town of Bushmills all bear the same spelling of his name as "McCulla" although the correct spelling is "McCullagh"
In December 2007, my husband and I travelled to France and found the grave of the young man my granny had loved so dearly. It was very emotional and exciting. The rain stopped and sun shone through while I took photos and "talked" with Allan. I told him about his son that he never got to see. How my granny had never forgotten him and how she sang their song till the day she died.
It took 90 years, but Allan's grave was found and the story of their love has been told. I believe the circle is now complete and my granny, her sweetheart and their son, can all be at peace.
When the fields are white with daisies I'll return.
Once a girl said to a soldier
Sure of traveling over
To a land across the raging ocean foam
Where the bullets were fast flying
And in numbers men lay dying
Far from the peaceful shores of home
Meet me yonder won't you then love
In the lane down by the pine grove
When you come home from a far and distant land
On the hillside green with clover
After all the wars are over
When the fields are white with daisies I'll return
Now the days they passed so slowly
The night winds blew so coldly
Outside her cabin as she waited all alone
And the letters he did write her
She kept them all beside her
As she prayed some day that he'd be coming home
Now the years have slowly rolled past
The weeds have choked the green grass
In the lane where she goes walking all alone
And the wild flowers have faded
From the face of a lady
For a soldier who never came home
The song is on You Tube for anyone who would like to hear it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZBjjRgTpOY
After spending the day with my mum, Mary and hearing the story of my granny and Allan McCullagh again, I decided to search for information. My granny had told my mum the story many times over the years and let my mum read the letters from Allan McCullagh that granny kept in a special little box.
Allan McCullagh was a handsome young man with dark curly hair and very much in love with his sweetheart Margaret Jane Lamont.
He was born shortly after the great famine and times were hard in Ireland with very little work. Like many others during those times young men looked to the "services" for regular wages.
Allan joined the Royal Irish Regiment, "C" Company, 6th Battalion and was sent to France. While Allan was stationed there he received word he was going to be a father. He wrote back saying if he had a son to please call him Allan. He told her to remember their song, "When the fields are white with daisies I'll return" and he applied for and was granted leave to come home and marry his sweetheart.
The Records State, Private Allan Mills McCullagh was at or near the train station when he was shot by sniper fire and rushed by stretcher-bearers to the nearby dressing station (field ambulance station). He was found to be dangerously ill and taken to the hospital at Le Havre France, where he died from his wounds.
Margaret Jane Lamont had a baby boy and kept her promise to her sweetheart naming the child Allan. He grew up looking very much like his father and joined the Navy.
BEHIND THE STORY
So on returning home after spending the day with my mum I began to search for information on Allan McCullagh.
I used the information from the Bushmills War Memorial to search the Commonwealth War Graves records. Then I stumbled onto "Find a grave" and I was amazed to find Allan McCulla had been listed here.
The army records, the headstone in Le Havre, France and the War Memorial in his home town of Bushmills all bear the same spelling of his name as "McCulla" although the correct spelling is "McCullagh"
In December 2007, my husband and I travelled to France and found the grave of the young man my granny had loved so dearly. It was very emotional and exciting. The rain stopped and sun shone through while I took photos and "talked" with Allan. I told him about his son that he never got to see. How my granny had never forgotten him and how she sang their song till the day she died.
It took 90 years, but Allan's grave was found and the story of their love has been told. I believe the circle is now complete and my granny, her sweetheart and their son, can all be at peace.
When the fields are white with daisies I'll return.
Once a girl said to a soldier
Sure of traveling over
To a land across the raging ocean foam
Where the bullets were fast flying
And in numbers men lay dying
Far from the peaceful shores of home
Meet me yonder won't you then love
In the lane down by the pine grove
When you come home from a far and distant land
On the hillside green with clover
After all the wars are over
When the fields are white with daisies I'll return
Now the days they passed so slowly
The night winds blew so coldly
Outside her cabin as she waited all alone
And the letters he did write her
She kept them all beside her
As she prayed some day that he'd be coming home
Now the years have slowly rolled past
The weeds have choked the green grass
In the lane where she goes walking all alone
And the wild flowers have faded
From the face of a lady
For a soldier who never came home
The song is on You Tube for anyone who would like to hear it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZBjjRgTpOY
Allan was the youngest of 15 children of Patrick and Mary Jane McCullagh of Bushmills, Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland and brother of Leading Seaman Arthur McCullagh .
After spending the day with my mum, Mary and hearing the story of my granny and Allan McCullagh again, I decided to search for information. My granny had told my mum the story many times over the years and let my mum read the letters from Allan McCullagh that granny kept in a special little box.
Allan McCullagh was a handsome young man with dark curly hair and very much in love with his sweetheart Margaret Jane Lamont.
He was born shortly after the great famine and times were hard in Ireland with very little work. Like many others during those times young men looked to the "services" for regular wages.
Allan joined the Royal Irish Regiment, "C" Company, 6th Battalion and was sent to France. While Allan was stationed there he received word he was going to be a father. He wrote back saying if he had a son to please call him Allan. He told her to remember their song, "When the fields are white with daisies I'll return" and he applied for and was granted leave to come home and marry his sweetheart.
The Records State, Private Allan Mills McCullagh was at or near the train station when he was shot by sniper fire and rushed by stretcher-bearers to the nearby dressing station (field ambulance station). He was found to be dangerously ill and taken to the hospital at Le Havre France, where he died from his wounds.
Margaret Jane Lamont had a baby boy and kept her promise to her sweetheart naming the child Allan. He grew up looking very much like his father and joined the Navy.
BEHIND THE STORY
So on returning home after spending the day with my mum I began to search for information on Allan McCullagh.
I used the information from the Bushmills War Memorial to search the Commonwealth War Graves records. Then I stumbled onto "Find a grave" and I was amazed to find Allan McCulla had been listed here.
The army records, the headstone in Le Havre, France and the War Memorial in his home town of Bushmills all bear the same spelling of his name as "McCulla" although the correct spelling is "McCullagh"
In December 2007, my husband and I travelled to France and found the grave of the young man my granny had loved so dearly. It was very emotional and exciting. The rain stopped and sun shone through while I took photos and "talked" with Allan. I told him about his son that he never got to see. How my granny had never forgotten him and how she sang their song till the day she died.
It took 90 years, but Allan's grave was found and the story of their love has been told. I believe the circle is now complete and my granny, her sweetheart and their son, can all be at peace.
When the fields are white with daisies I'll return.
Once a girl said to a soldier
Sure of traveling over
To a land across the raging ocean foam
Where the bullets were fast flying
And in numbers men lay dying
Far from the peaceful shores of home
Meet me yonder won't you then love
In the lane down by the pine grove
When you come home from a far and distant land
On the hillside green with clover
After all the wars are over
When the fields are white with daisies I'll return
Now the days they passed so slowly
The night winds blew so coldly
Outside her cabin as she waited all alone
And the letters he did write her
She kept them all beside her
As she prayed some day that he'd be coming home
Now the years have slowly rolled past
The weeds have choked the green grass
In the lane where she goes walking all alone
And the wild flowers have faded
From the face of a lady
For a soldier who never came home
The song is on You Tube for anyone who would like to hear it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZBjjRgTpOY
After spending the day with my mum, Mary and hearing the story of my granny and Allan McCullagh again, I decided to search for information. My granny had told my mum the story many times over the years and let my mum read the letters from Allan McCullagh that granny kept in a special little box.
Allan McCullagh was a handsome young man with dark curly hair and very much in love with his sweetheart Margaret Jane Lamont.
He was born shortly after the great famine and times were hard in Ireland with very little work. Like many others during those times young men looked to the "services" for regular wages.
Allan joined the Royal Irish Regiment, "C" Company, 6th Battalion and was sent to France. While Allan was stationed there he received word he was going to be a father. He wrote back saying if he had a son to please call him Allan. He told her to remember their song, "When the fields are white with daisies I'll return" and he applied for and was granted leave to come home and marry his sweetheart.
The Records State, Private Allan Mills McCullagh was at or near the train station when he was shot by sniper fire and rushed by stretcher-bearers to the nearby dressing station (field ambulance station). He was found to be dangerously ill and taken to the hospital at Le Havre France, where he died from his wounds.
Margaret Jane Lamont had a baby boy and kept her promise to her sweetheart naming the child Allan. He grew up looking very much like his father and joined the Navy.
BEHIND THE STORY
So on returning home after spending the day with my mum I began to search for information on Allan McCullagh.
I used the information from the Bushmills War Memorial to search the Commonwealth War Graves records. Then I stumbled onto "Find a grave" and I was amazed to find Allan McCulla had been listed here.
The army records, the headstone in Le Havre, France and the War Memorial in his home town of Bushmills all bear the same spelling of his name as "McCulla" although the correct spelling is "McCullagh"
In December 2007, my husband and I travelled to France and found the grave of the young man my granny had loved so dearly. It was very emotional and exciting. The rain stopped and sun shone through while I took photos and "talked" with Allan. I told him about his son that he never got to see. How my granny had never forgotten him and how she sang their song till the day she died.
It took 90 years, but Allan's grave was found and the story of their love has been told. I believe the circle is now complete and my granny, her sweetheart and their son, can all be at peace.
When the fields are white with daisies I'll return.
Once a girl said to a soldier
Sure of traveling over
To a land across the raging ocean foam
Where the bullets were fast flying
And in numbers men lay dying
Far from the peaceful shores of home
Meet me yonder won't you then love
In the lane down by the pine grove
When you come home from a far and distant land
On the hillside green with clover
After all the wars are over
When the fields are white with daisies I'll return
Now the days they passed so slowly
The night winds blew so coldly
Outside her cabin as she waited all alone
And the letters he did write her
She kept them all beside her
As she prayed some day that he'd be coming home
Now the years have slowly rolled past
The weeds have choked the green grass
In the lane where she goes walking all alone
And the wild flowers have faded
From the face of a lady
For a soldier who never came home
The song is on You Tube for anyone who would like to hear it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZBjjRgTpOY
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