Robert Clifford ORR

Robert Clifford ORR. Captain, 3rd attached to 1st Somerset Light Infantry. Born 17 September 1880 in Belfast, to Robert Harrison and Cassandra Marchaise Orr, nee Johnson of 2 Brookvale Terrace, Antrim Road, Belfast. 1911 residing at the home of his brother William James and his family at 4 Marlborough Park, Belfast, occupation, solicitor. At the time of his death his parents were residing at 1, Lombard Street, Belfast, Ireland.

In 1910 promoted to 2nd Lieutenant in the 3rd (Reserve) Somerset Light Infantry, promoted to Lieutenant in December 1911 and Captain, October 1914. After the war broke out, he was attached to the 1st Battalion and served at the front for about two months prior to his death. He was killed on the 19 December 1914 aged 34 while leading his men in an attack on the German trenches outside Ploegsteert Wood in Flanders.

The following account of the circumstances was given to his brother by the Adjutant of his battalion. “The company, in which your brother was, was ordered to lead the attack on the German trenches on the 19 December 1914. After heavy artillery bombardment all the morning the assault was made at 2.30 p.m. All the officers and men of this company and the one which supported it, behaved with the utmost gallantry, but they were not successful in actually taking the German trenches, though several isolated parties, including one in which your brother was included, succeeded in breaking through the enemy’s wire entanglement and into a house held by the enemy. Nothing was known of your brother’s fate until Christmas Day. On this day an informal truce was arranged and the Germans brought out from within their lines and handed over to us the body of your brother, amongst others and we buried him in the little cemetery in Ploegsteert Wood near our headquarters.”

Wills and Admin, Ancestry -

Robert Clifford Orr. Of Rockside, Newcastle, County Down. Captain, Somerset Light Infantry who was killed in action 19 December 1914 at Flanders granted at Belfast to William J.J. Orr, solicitor. Effects £416 10s 01.

At rest in Ploegsteert Wood Military Cemetery, Hainaut, Belgium