James Lyle Hay.

Hi,

My name is Paul Maguire and I live in Belfast. Several weeks back I came into possession of 2 hand written letters dating back to 1915 & 1916. The letters were sent by a soldier serving in France during WW1 to his friend in Belfast. The soldiers name is J L Hay, 12th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers, from Clonbrock. I believe this man to be the same James Lyle Hay from the parish of Fohenagh, Killure and Kilgerril, Co Galway who is remembered on a number of plaques in Ballinasloe. One very interesting point that I noticed in the 1916 letter is that he dated it August 1st but all records in Britain, France and Ireland have his date of death as July 3rd 1916. I feel this is something that should be investigated. In this letter he tells of his just returning from 7 days leave at his home in Clonbrock where everyone is keeping well and of the fine weather. I know from the 1901 census, when he was just 5 years old, he lived at No.6 Clonbrock Demense with his parents and sister. Is it possible for you to find out if there are any living relatives, maybe still in the Galway area, who I could pass these letters on to. In the meantime I will contact the British War Graves Department to follow up the date discrepancy.

Regards Paul. 

Tel. 02890 714793.