Stronge of Tynan Abbey, lost his only son, James Matthew.




Stronge of Tynan Abbey, lost his only son, James Matthew. Lieutenant James Matthew Stronge was serving with the 9th Battalion of the Royal Irish Fusiliers when he was killed in action at the Battle of Ypres on 16th August 1917. 

He was 26 years old and had been married just weeks before his death to Winifred Alexander of Carrickmore. In fact, it is for the loss of his son that Sir Norman, a cousin, inherited the title and property. 

Sir Norman, a veteran of the Great War, served as a second lieutenant into the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. He fought on the Western Front with the 10th (Service) Battalion, as a lieutenant and later as captain. He was decorated with the Military Cross and the Belgian croix de guerre. He survived the first day of the Battle of the Somme in July 1916 and was the first soldier after the start of the battle to be mentioned in dispatches by General Sir Douglas Haig, commander of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the Western Front. 

In April 1918, he was appointed adjutant of the 15th (Service) Battalion (North Belfast), Royal Irish Rifles. He was wounded in action near Kortrijk, Belgium towards the end of the war on 20 October 1918. He relinquished his commission on 19 August 1919 and was permitted to retain the rank of captain.

On the outbreak of the Second World War (1939–45) in September 1939, he was again commissioned, this time into the North Irish Horse, Royal Armoured Corps, reverting to the rank of second lieutenant. He relinquished the commission on 20 April 1940 due to ill-health. In 1950, he was appointed Honorary Colonel of a Territorial Army (TA) unit of the Royal Irish Fusiliers.

Elected as an MP for Mid Armagh in a by-election held in September 1938, he went onto serve as Speaker of the NI House of Commons.

His son, James, served as an officer in the Grenadier Guards and later became an RUC Reservist. He was also an MP in the NI Parliament and was brutally murdered alongside his elderly father by the Provisional IRA in January 1981, in Tynan Abbey.

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