SECOND LIEUTENANT EDWARD ALEXANDER MCCLATCHIE
ROYAL INNISKILLING FUSILIERS
10TH AUGUST 1917 AGE 19
BURIED: MENDINGHEM MILITARY CEMETERY, PROVEN, BELGIUM
The McClatchies lived in Portrush, County Antrim, where Edward's father was a National School teacher. Edward enlisted on 4 November 1915. This was before conscription was introduced in January 1916 but after the introduction of the National Registration Act in July 1915. Under this Act men were asked to 'attest', in other words to indicate by signing a form their willingness to serve when called upon to do so. It wasn't exactly compulsion but it was heavy pressure. Edward would have been the right age to have felt the need to attest. Was he 'called upon' in November 1915?
There's something about this inscription - "a son of Ulster who did his duty". It's very severe. But when you remember that Antrim was one of the Irish counties preparing armed resistance to Britain in the summer of 1914 because they felt betrayed by the British Government's preparations to introduce Home Rule for Ireland, then you can imagine that the residents of Antrim might have had mixed feelings about sending their sons to fight for Britain. Hence the emphasis on the fact that Edward McClatchie had been doing his duty. However, Edward McClatchie was a Protestant, the census says so, and as "a son of Ulster", loyal to the British Crown. There must have been many conflicted families in Ireland during the First World War - on both sides of the religious divide.