2nd Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (British Army)
Date Of Birth:
07/10/1886
Died:
21/10/1914 (Killed in Action)
Age:
28
Summary
Samuel Ballentine was the eldest son of Thomas J and Elizabeth Ballentine. Samuel was born on 7th October 1886 in Cookstown. By 1901 Samuel was 14 and had left school and was working as an apprentice printer. The family moved to Belfast. Samuel was working in Scotland before the start of the First World War and enlisted in Stirling. Corporal Samuel Ballentine was serving with the 2nd Battalion of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders when he was killed in action on Wednesday 21st October 1914. He was 28 years old.
Further Information
Samuel Ballentine was the eldest son of Thomas J and Elizabeth Ballentine. Thomas Ballentine married Elizabeth Harvey on 20th May 1882 in the district of Cookstown.
The surname is variously spelt Ballentine / Ballentyne / Ballantine along with various others.
Samuel was born on 7th October 1886 in Cookstown. He was on of six children, five surviving.
Family: Thomas J Ballentine, Elizabeth Ballentine, Matilda Annie Ballentine (born 20th March 1883 or 13th October 1884), Samuel Ballentine (born 7th October 1886), Maggie Ballentine (born 11th October 1888), Sarah Jane Ballentine (born 12th November 1890), Thomas J Ballentine (born 6th December 1892).
The 1901 census lists Samuel as age 14, living with the family at house 51 in Oldtown St, Cookstown. Samuel had left school and was working as an apprentice printer. His father was described as a ‘dealer’.
The family moved to Belfast and lives in Willowfield Street.
The 1911 census does not list Samuel as living with the family at house 44 in Willowfield Street, Ormeau, Belfast. His father was now working as a carter.
Samuel was working in Scotland before the start of the First World War and enlisted in Stirling.
On the 21st October 1914 the 2nd Battalion were attacked by German troops and were driven back about three hundred yards. They regained their trench after midnight in a courageous counter attack. Men who had been wounded and who could not walk had to be left behind and became German prisoners.
Corporal Samuel Ballentine was serving with the 2nd Battalion of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders when he was killed in action on Wednesday 21st October 1914. He was 28 years old.
Corporal Samuel Ballentine has no known grave and is commemorated on Ploegsteert Memorial, Belgium.
Corporal Samuel Ballentine is also remembered on the headstone of the family plot in Cookstown New Cemetery.
His mother passed away on 22nd December 1943 and his father three years later on 17th February 1946.
The CWGC record Corporal Samuel Ballentine as the son of Thomas J and Elizabeth Ballentine, of 83 Willowfield Street, Belfast.
