Rifleman Frederick William Martin Greer – Service Number 17771

Frederick was born in Doncaster, England in December 1890. His parents had started raising their family in the Hillsborough area of County Down, before moving to England. However, not long after Fred’s father died, around 1900, the Greer family returned to Northern Ireland. Fred became a Bank Clerk with the Ulster Bank. In years before the war, he lived with his mother and unmarried sister, at Downshire Road, Cregagh. When the war started, Fred joined the Young Citizens Volunteers, which later became the 14th Battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles. He was Killed in Action on 9 October 1916, aged 25. The Belfast Newsletter reported his death as follows – Ulster Bank Official Killed Private F. W. Greer, younger son of Mrs Greer, Inglenook, James Street, Lurgan and formerly of Downshire Road, Cregagh, has been killed in action. He was a member of Collegians’ Rugby Football Club and of Cregagh Presbyterian Church Choir and committee. When war broke out he was on the staff of the Ulster Bank, Mountpottinger Branch, and he volunteered shortly afterwards, joining the Y.C.V.’s. His chaplain writes to say that he was killed on Monday morning 9th inst., by a shell, while standing bravely at the post of duty. His elder brother, formerly of the Ulster Bank, Clones, is serving with the Canadians, and is at present in England recovering from the effects of a shrapnel wound in the shoulder. Fred is buried at the Pond Farm Cemetery in Belgium. A War Gratuity of £8 – 10s was paid to Fred’s mother as a result of his death.

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