Friends of the Somme - Mid Ulster Branch  
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Updates for Quartermaster George Herbert McAllan
Date Information
20/08/2021 George McAllan was born in Belfast on 2nd February 1879. He was second of sic children, five surviving.
20/08/2021 Many thanks to Paul Kerr and the Royal School Dungannon for his research and all the information and photos provided. Private Charles Frederick Marshall is listed on page 41 of the Royal School Dungannon WWI book
20/08/2021 George Herbert McAllan was the eldest son of Alexander and Marion McAllan (nee Ayre). Both were Scottish so it is presumed they were married in Scotland.
20/08/2021 Known family: Alexander McAllan, Marion McAllan, Laura McAllan (born 7th January 1877, Belfast), George Herbert McAllan (born 2nd February 1878, Belfast), Ethel Alice McAllan (born 10th April 1880, Belfast), Albert Ernest McAllan (born about 1887, Monaghan).
12/04/2017 Lieutenant and Quartermaster George Herbert McAllan, South African Forces, died on 4th December at Roberts Height, Pretoria. He was the eldest son of the late Mr Alexander McAllan, of the Monaghan branch of the Provincial Bank of Ireland, and of Mrs McAllan, Castledawson, County Down. Lieutenant McAllan was educated Collegiate School Monaghan, and Royal School Dungannon, and afterwards entered the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank in London. He left to join the forces for the South African campaign, and afterwards settled in Johannesburg. In 1915 he joined the South African Flying Corps, with which he came to England in 1916, but was ordered back to the campaign in German East and West Africa, having only had a flying visit to his home on sick leave. Lieutenant McAllan was a noted rugby football player, having played full back for Ireland in 1896 while still a schoolboy at Dungannon.
12/04/2017
12/04/2017 From the Belfast Newsletter dated 13th December 1918: Death of an International Rugby Player
30/12/2015 George attended the Collegiate School, Monaghan and then the Royal School Dungannon from 1893 to 1896.
30/12/2015 During the Great War he volunteered for active service and in February 1915 he was gazetted 2nd Lieutenant with the Royal Flying Corps, and was later promoted to Lieutenant.
30/12/2015 In 1903 he married a Catherine Hogate of South Africa.
30/12/2015 In February 1901 he moved to Johannesburg, South Africa were he joined Ordnance Department of the South African Constabulary and was shortly after arriving injured in the Boer War.
30/12/2015 In 1896 he played for Ireland v Scotland and then against Wales.
30/12/2015 He was stationed with the Royal Air Force in England in 1915 and then served in German East Africa.
30/12/2015 George's father Alexander was the manager of the Provincial Bank of Ireland in Monaghan.
30/12/2015 In 1898 George McAllan moved to London where he worked for the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank.
30/12/2015 George McAllan played rugby for both schools and then for Dungannon.
30/12/2015 As a result of those injuries, he was transferred to South African Medical Corps as Lieutenant and Quartermaster.
30/12/2015 Quartermaster George Herbert McAllan was serving with the South African Medical Corps when he died on 4th December 1918 of wounds received in the air accident.
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30/12/2015 After leaving school, George taught at Cavan Royal School for one year.
30/12/2015 He played in the London Irish pre-season warm-up match at Alexander Palace in 1899. The Ireland International seems to have been forgotten by the Rugby Unions' lists of players who died in World War 1, which considering that he was the first schoolboy to play for the Irish national team, is surprising.
30/12/2015 George was involved in an air crash and was badly injured.
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30/12/2015
30/12/2015 Quartermaster George Herbert McAllan was buried in the Thaba Tshwane (previously Voortrekkerhoogte, originally Roberts Heights) cemetery in Gauteng, South Africa.
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