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Today sees the 94th anniversary of the opening day of the Battle of the Somme in 1916. And our correspondent, Cllr Dr Ian Adamson OBE, is off to France to attend the commemoration. Ian is the Founder of the Somme Association (Ireland).

That July 1st was the bloodiest single day that the British Army has ever experienced, before or since. There were 57,000 casualties, of whom 19,000 were killed or died from wounds. Among the Army were the Ulstermen of the 36th (Ulster) Division - the only division which, however briefly, achieved all its military objectives on that terrible first day- recruited largely from the preWar Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). The 36th Division suffered 5,000 killed, wounded or missing on the first two days of the battle.

The Battle is well remembered here in Ulster. When I served as a Local Councillor, the only time I and my fellow councillors appeared in public dressed in our official robes was on Remembrance Sunday about 18th November and on Somme Commemoration on 1st July. I much preferred 1st July since the weather tended to be rather warmer!

In The Rhyming Weavers, by Dr Ian Adamson (Sunday, May 2. 2010) Ian Adamson wrote -

My Granny’s cousin William lived in a little cottage in the bottom of the Tower Road in Conlig which leads directly to Helens’ Tower. He died at the Somme on 1st July, 1916 and has no known grave. And that is why we built a Somme Museum at Whitespots, Conlig, and why we refurbished the Ulster Tower at Thiepval in France, which is a replica of Helens’ Tower.

I believe that my grandfather, James Hamilton, was a member of the UVF, for he told me that on the night of the gunrunning in 1914 he had been out on horseback at Ballycraigy (my grandfather was probably a UVF officer). My grandfather's entry in the Hamilton genealogy booklet that I have mentioned before reads -

1c JAMES CRAIG HAMILTON (12.3.1891 11.8.1981) of Ballycowan, Farmer
m. (?1919) Elizabeth Whiteside (15.5.1891 6.9.1982), dr. of James Simpson of Galgorm (Ballymena, Co.Antrim)

The family farm needed someone to work it, so my grandfather, the eldest son, did not join the colours. But his younger brother did. This was the man my uncles and aunts referred to as "Uncle Billy". I was told that Uncle Billy survived the War, took a medical degree and moved to Liverpool as an eye specialist.

I met Uncle Billy once. This was in the early 80s when, with his wife, he visited the family farm at Ballycowan, near Ballymena. I was interested to quiz Uncle Billy on his wartime experience. I can't remember whether he told me of serving at the Somme. But he told me that they were looking for volunteers for the infant Royal Flying Corps. He volunterered and was accepted. [On 1 April 1918 the RFC was amalgamated with the Royal Naval Air Service to become the Royal Air Force (RAF).]

Uncle Billy trained as a pilot and served in both Palestine and Lebanon. After the war he turned to medicine and never flew again.

'Uncle Billy''s entry reads -

2c WILLIAM DUNLOP HAMILTON (14.9.1897 29.10.1984), FRCS, in Liverpool, Eye Specialist.
m. (1922) Ivy Jean (9.12.1899 14.12.1983), dr. of .... Pring in Belfast

I hope that I can find out more about 'Uncle Billy'. The Director of the Somme Heritage Centre told me that, if my information is accurate, Uncle Billy was the only Ulsterman that he knew of who had served in the original Royal Flying Corps.

Links

First day on the Somme - Wikipedia

36th (Ulster) Division - Wikipedia

Somme Heritage Centre - Wikipedia

The Royal Institute of British Architects in London yesterday announced the winner of this year's £100,000 Art Fund Prize as the Ulster Museum in Belfast.

The Ulster Museum beat three other shortlisted institutions, including the UK's oldest public museum, Oxford's Ashmolean. Chair of the judges, Kirsty Young, said the panel were "moved and invigorated" when they visited the Ulster Museum. The Ulster Museum reopened in October 2009 and since then has become Northern Ireland's busiest visitor attraction.

Last month the Ulster Museum was shortlisted for the award with 3 other museums viz.

- Oxford's Ashmolean Museum, the UK's oldest public museum, which reopened last year after a £61m redevelopment

- Blists Hill Victorian Town, in Shropshire; and

- the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, in Coventry.

Congratulations to all in the Northern Ireland Museum Service on this achievement!

Links

Ulster Museum wins £100,000 Art Fund Prize BBC News Wednesday, 30 June 2010

Four museums up for £100,000 Art Fund prize BBC News Thursday, 13 May

In Are you related to Royalty? by Don Glossinger, Tuesday, June 29. 2010, I revealed how Don Glossinger told me that I had been consistently misspelling his name, leaving out the 'L'. I don't know how I had managed to do this, but hope that now I've made the appropriate corrections.

This caused me to think of the names "Glossinger" and the one I had mistaken it for "Gossinger". I may have been influenced by Gösser beer, the most popular beer in Austria - please see my photo of the ferry on Lake Balaton (2004) with its slogan 'GUT, BESSER, GÖSSER' in Joining the EU: Part 7 (Wednesday, January 24. 2007).






It seems to me that "Glossinger" is a common and familiar type of German surname taken from a place. Well-known examples include Henry Kissinger and Cardinal Ratzinger (the current Pope Benedict). "Glossinger" would mean "the man from Glossing".






Internet searches give me examples of the name 'Glossinger', 'Gossinger' and 'Gossing', but I can't find mention of any place called 'Glossing' (there's interference from the English verbal noun 'glossing'). Nor anything on a place ''Glossing' nor 'Gossing'.

'Ing' is a common element in English place-nemes, as in 'Nottingham', Warrington and Birmingham. 'Birmingham means 'the village of Beorma's family', so that the meaning of 'ing' in Old English (Anglo-Saxon) would appear to be 'family'.

Students of German place-names will understand that they hunt in packs and are not evenly distributed through the country. Thus the '-in' ending is found in the East - as in Berlin, Schwerin and Küstrin - indicating a Slavic origin. Likewise '-itz' (Colditz, Chemnitz). The ending '-heim' (Mannheim, Pforzheim, Rüdesheim), meaning 'home', is found in the Rhineland. Wagner lovers will know that the Gibichungs live in Gibichheim on the Rhine, and that the underground dwelling of the Nibelungs is called 'Nibelheim'.

We have Tübingen and Memmingen in the Swabian region of South-West Germany [also the '-lingen' ending as in Reutlingen, Esslingen and Tuttlingen]. Then there's Ingolstadt on the Danube, on the border between the Bavarian and Franconian dialect areas.

We once spent a summer holiday in Mayrhofen in the Austrian Tyrol. I seemed to rermember villages around Mayrhofen called '-ing'. One of them was, I though, 'Ginzing'. But through the Mayrhofen site, I find that its name would appear to be 'Ginzling'. The Alpenstraße Schlegeis panoramic trail starts in Ginzing/Dornauberg, which is close to Zell am Ziller (i.e. in the Ziller Valley near Mayrhofen). There's a 'Grinzing' near Vienna, Austria's capital.

(later) But perhaps 'Glossinger' does not refer to a place at all? Perhaps all it means is "of Goss's family"?

Link

Gösser beer

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