BORN – Oswestry
HOMEFRONT – Place / Occupation / St Oswald’s / Our Lady and St Oswald’s RC Church, Oswestry
JOB – General Labourer
UNIT – 11 Bn East Yorkshire Regiment
RANK – Private 17581
THEATRE – Arras / Fresnoy. 11 Bn East Yorkshire Regiment. 8 November 1917.
DIED – KIA 8 November 1917. Aged 26.
BURIED – Roclincourt Military Cemetery. (CWGC)
Christopher Macnamara was born in 1891; he was the youngest child of Philip and Mary Macnamara (nee Burke) of 18 Oswald Place, off Upper Brook Street, Oswestry. There would be 8 siblings but only 6 survived into adulthood – Richard (1874, Wrexham), John (1877, Oswestry), James (1879, Oswestry), Annie (1882, Oswestry) and Philip (1889, Oswestry). Both his grandfathers were from Ireland. In 1911, aged 19, he gave his occupation as general labourer. By the outbreak of war he was working for William Carter, Chemist & Mineral Water Manufacturer, 6 Cross Street, Oswestry
He joined the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry on 15 September 1914 – but, at his medical examination 2 weeks later, was discharged under Kings Regulation Para 392, as ‘not likely to make an efficient soldier’; he had bad teeth. The next day an army dentist extracted 28 teeth, almost his full set. In March 1915, presumably with his dentures, he tried again and enlisted as Private 17581 11 Bn East Yorkshire Regiment, a service / Pals battalion known as the Hull Tradesmen. He arrived in France in December 1915. He saw action at Serre on the Somme on the 1 July but was spared the slaughter that befell others of the Hull Pals. In April 1917, he was wounded by a gun shot to his left foot and spent time in hospital, before returning to the front in May 1917 and posting back to 11 Bn East Yorks.
He was killed on 8 November 1917 during a raid on the enemy trenches at Fresnoy. The battalion casualties were 57 wounded, missing or killed including Christopher. His C/O wrote to his parents: ‘Last Thursday he had an important duty to perform and while carrying out this work he was unfortunately hit so severely he died. Both his comrades and myself feel his loss very much and he was always a popular with other fellows in his platoon. I am more than grieved at your loss and beg to offer my deepest sympathy’. Christopher was buried at Roclincourt Military Cemetery. He is also commemorated at St Oswald’s Church, Oswestry. 2 of his brothers were also serving but survived the war.
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