Friends of the Somme - Mid Ulster Branch  
ff
Date Information
01/05/2020 02192
03/10/2018 His brother, Private Joseph McCord, has also written, stating that he got a shrapnel wound on the right arm on Saturday night, 15th May. After being in the base hospital for some days he was sent to Cambridge Hospital, where he is getting on well.
03/10/2018 ‘It was a terrible attack we were in, and I don’t know how I got through it safe, as I got my hat riddled with bullets and the knee of my trousers was knocked out with a piece of a shell. I was one of the bomb throwers, and when we got up to the trench we made the Germans fly. We are a few miles behind the trenches resting for three or four weeks. I suppose there was not much stir in Cookstown on the hiring Saturday, as there are not many people in it now. I wish this terrible war was over and that I got through safe, as it is awful what I come through this past fortnight.’
03/10/2018 Private John McCord, 2nd Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, writing to his mother, Mrs McCord, Killymoon Street, Cookstown, after referring to his brother Joseph, who was wounded, says:-
03/10/2018
03/10/2018 From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 5th June 1915: The McCords of Killymoon Street (brothers of Andrew McCord)
03/06/2016 From the Belfast Newsletter dated 5th June 1915: Joseph McCord (brother of Andrew McCord)
03/06/2016 Private Joseph McCord, 3rd Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, has written to his mother, Mrs McCord, Killymoon Street, Cookstown, stating that he received a shrapnel wound on the right arm on 15th May. He is now in Cambridge Hospital, and is getting on well.
03/06/2016
30/12/2015 ‘We were holding part of the line and your son was in charge of it with six men under him, under very heavy shell fire, the Germans sent over a small party and entered. Your son and two other men are missing, three of them must have been taken prisoners, they could not have been blown up, they could not have been blown up as none of that part was damaged in any way, and so you must not think of him in any other way than a prisoner of war. I know, of course, your grief will be extreme, but I give you my word of honour I believe him to be alive, and if he was my brother, I would write the same to my mother. I cannot express to you how we feel his loss and of the other two as well. Your son was a splendid example of what a soldier should be. Please accept in you great trial my most profound sympathy. I will of course write to you again if I hear anything. I belong to Tyrone myself.’
30/12/2015 Official intimation has been received by Mrs McCord, Killymoon Street, Cookstown, that two of her sons have been reported missing. Lance Corporal John McCord, Inniskilling Fusiliers, is missing since 27th August. He is 22 years of age, and had completed his seven years a few months before the war was declared. He went to France shortly afterwards, and had been in several of the heavy engagements and had escaped up to the present. Lieutenant Alan Lendrum, writing to his mother says:-
30/12/2015
30/12/2015 From the Mid Ulster Mail dated Saturday 16th September 1916: Cookstown Brothers Missing
30/12/2015 Private McCord is also commemorated on Cookstown Cenotaph.
30/12/2015 Private McCord has no known grave and is commemorated on panel 4D-5B on the Thiepval Memorial, France.
30/12/2015 Private Andy McCord, who is missing since early in August, was only 18 years of age and volunteered about twelve months ago. He had been at the front four months and had escaped until now.
30/12/2015 Private Andrew McCord had gone to the Front around May 1916.
30/12/2015 Family: John McCord, Mary McCord, John McCord (born 24th May 1894), Joseph McCord (born 28th August 1896), Andrew McCord (born 9th May 1898), Mary McCord (born 21st January 1900), Charles McCord (born 25th December 1901), Sarah McCord (born 19th March 1904, died 16th January 1907?).
30/12/2015 Private Andrew McCord was serving with the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers when he was killed in action on 10th July 1916. He was 18 years old.
30/12/2015 Another brother, Private Joseph McCord, was wounded in May 1915, and was in a hospital in Cambridge up till a few months ago, and is at present stationed in Tipperary.
30/12/2015
30/12/2015 The 1901 census lists the family as living in the Grange area of Tullyhogue, near Cookstown. Andrew was two years old. John McCord was a Railway Platelayer.
30/12/2015 Andrew McCord was the son of John and Mary McCord. John McCord married Mary Dorman on 14th May 1891 in Cookstown. Andrew was their third son, born at on 9th May 1898 in the Cookstown area.
30/12/2015 There is a 12 year old Andrew McCord living with and working as a servant for the Ferguson family at house 11 in Tullyhogue, County Tyrone. It is strongly suspected that this is Andrew.
30/12/2015 Andrew McCord enlisted in Cookstown about September 1915.
30/12/2015 He was killed in the same engagement as Private William McAleece on 10th July 1916.
30/12/2015 By 1915, his mother had moved into the town and was living in Killymoon Street.
30/12/2015 Private Andrew McCord had two other brothers who served, Lance Corporal John McCord, who was feared lost, bur became a prisoner of war, and Private Joseph McCord who was wounded in May 1915 and was stationed in County Tipperary at the time of Andrew’s death.
30/12/2015 By the time of the 1911 census, John’s father had died. His mother still lived in Grange, but the family were no longer living together.
Read more