Poppy In memoriam Poppy

Private Edward Hargan

 

Edward Hargan was born on 2 May 1886 at Moylena, Antrim, the first of seven children of labourer William Hargan and his wife Mary (formerly McCappin, nee Wylie). By 1901 he was living with his family at Ballyclare and working as a doffer in a flax spinning mill. Hargan's mother died of tuberculosis at Ballyclare in January 1910 and the following year his father died in the Antrim Workhouse. His brother Thomas died in the workhouse two years later.

On 21 July 1914 he married factory worker Elizabeth McCormick at the Antrim Roman Catholic Church. The couple had four children – Mary, who had been born in September 1913, Charles, born February 1915, Agnes, born June 1916, and Edward, born October 1918.

Hargan enlisted in the North Irish Horse at Antrim on 2 April 1918 (No.72055). Soon after, he became ill with headaches, chest and back pains. A medical board at Belfast in July found that he was suffering from tuberculosis, contracted as a result of "a cold on home training". He was discharged as no longer physically fit for military service on 31 July 1918, a notation placed on his file that during his time in the North Irish Horse "he has been honest, sober & industrious."

Hargan died from the disease at his home at Church Street, Antrim, on 6 April 1919. His fourth child, Edward, had died of bronchitis six months earlier.

Private Hargan's place of burial is at present unknown.

 

Because his death was attributable to his service in the army, Private Hargan qualified for commemoration as a casualty of the war. However this was overlooked at the time. In 2016 a submission to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission through the In From the Cold Project proposed his inclusion on the CWGC casualty database. The Commission agreed, and Private Hargan's is now commemorated on the Brookwood 1914-1918 Memorial, Surrey, England, Panel 10.