Lieutenant William Henry Young - R.A.M.C

NAME; Young, William Henry

RANK; Lieutenant

SERV. NO; 69350

UNIT/SERVICE; 28^th General Hospital

REGIMENT; Royal Army Medical Corps

BORN; Cork, Ireland

LIVED; High Street, Carrickfergus

ENLISTED; Carrickfergus 1915

FATE; Died of dysentery 13^th July 1916 aged 24

CEMETERY; Salonika (Lambret Road) – Military Cemetery – Greece - 246

CHURCH;Church of Ireland

MEMORIAL;

REMARKS; William was the only son of William and Elizabeth Young of High Street, Carrickfergus.  He was a native of Cork.  William’s father was the local Head Constable with the Royal Irish Constabulary.  Prior to the war William had trained as a chemist hence his decision to join the Army Medical Corp.   The following details appeared in the August 1916 edition of the local paper; ‘He had been in Salonica for several months and a fortnight ago intimation was received by his parents that he was dangerously ill with dysentery, a dreaded disease which has caused much mortality among our troops in that part of the war area. Mr Young was unable to withstand its ravages and on Wednesday his relatives received the sad news of his demise'  

Salonika Lambert Road Cemetery

Information on Salonika (Lambert Road) Cemetery - From Commonwealth Graves

The Cemetery is on the northern outskirts of Thessalonika, it lies on the west side of the road to Serres, Langada Street, adjoining the Roman Catholic, French and Italian War Cemeteries.

Historical Information

At the invitation of the Greek Prime Minister, M.Venizelos, Salonika (now Thessalonika) was occupied by three French Divisions and the 10th (Irish) Division from Gallipoli in October 1915. Other French and Commonwealth forces landed during the year and in the summer of 1916, they were joined by Russian and Italian troops. In August 1916, a Greek revolution broke out at Salonika, with the result that the Greek national army came into the war on the Allied side.

The town was the base of the British Salonika Force and it contained, from time to time, eighteen general and stationary hospitals. Three of these hospitals were Canadian, although there were no other Canadian units in the force.

The earliest Commonwealth burials took place in the local Protestant and Roman Catholic cemeteries. Salonika (Lembet Road) Military Cemetery (formerly known as the Anglo-French Military Cemetery) was begun in November 1915 and Commonwealth, French, Serbian, Italian and Russian sections were formed. The Commonwealth section remained in use until October 1918, although from the beginning of 1917, burials were also made in Mikra British Cemetery. After the Armistice, some graves were brought in from other cemeteries in Macedonia, Albania and from Scala Cemetery, near Cassivita, on the island of Thasos.

There are now 1,648 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery. The Commonwealth plot also contains 45 Bulgarian and one Serbian war graves.