Princess hears of young Fusilier’s bravery on the battlefield

The war memorabilia collector brought some of his most treasured possessions to the unveiling of the plans for a Centenary Wood at the 53-acre site owned by the Woodland Trust in the Faughan Valley, just a few miles out of the city on the Glenshane Road.

“It was wonderful. She was a very charming person,” said Stanley after spending a good 10 minutes in the company of Princess Royal The Princess Anne.

Earlier in the day Stanley had made his way to the riverside location for the Royal visit armed with an arsenal of wartime memorabilia to set up a display.

Minutes after the Princess Royal was met by the Lord Lieutenant of Co Londonderry, Mr Denis Desmond, and Patrick Cregg, Director of the Woodland Trust, and the welcoming party of public dignitaries were introduced to Her Royal Highness, Stanley found himself face-to-face with the Princess, who seemed fascinated by his family history.

Speaking after the Princess Royal had moved outside to speak to other guests, Stanley spoke about his experience: “She was interested in how I got involved in the First World War memorabilia and stuff.

“I had an uncle who was a stretcher bearer in the First World War, my mother’s eldest brother, Edmund Gray. Edmund was 26 when he was killed, he was a stretcher bearer. He was killed in the battle of Passchendaele on the 16th of August, 1917,” he said, pointing proudly to a picture of his great uncle and to a Royal Irish Fusiliers plaque marking his supreme sacrifice, which was sent home to his family.

Opening a brass matchbox which belonged to his uncle, Stanley admitted that his memorabilia was “very precious” to him, and particularly that belonging to his uncle.

“They kept the matches in this to keep them dry because there was a lot of water about and you struck them on the bottom of the container,” he said demonstrating.

“That was his cigarette box,” said Stanley lifting another brass container.

“He didn’t smoke so he kept sweets in it. Queen Mary, George V’s wife, she all the troops 11 Woodbines in one of these boxes back in the days when smoking was the thing to do. They mostly smoked in the First World War to keep the smell down because there were bodies everywhere,” he said.

“They smoked Gold Flake too. It was another, more expensive kind of cigarette. It didn’t come in a cardboard box it came in a tin. Now, when I was walking round the Somme Battlefield I picked up all these pieces,” said Stanley, a member of the Somme Association.

Describing what his uncle and other Fusiliers and soldiers went through as “horrible”, he picks up the old ‘Gold Flake’ cigarette tin, filled with tiny treasures, and rattles off an inventory of what they are: “This is the original barbed wire, those are shrapnel balls from shells and that is pieces of shells, shrapnel. It was horrific, really horrific.”

He points out a German soldier’s helmet with a hole at the apex, which he found in Thiepval woods... and you cannot help but wonder if the hole in it was caused by a bullet fired at the wearer.

Beside it is a Private’s cap and beside that a ‘Tommy’ helmet. Reaching out to an old linen bag, Stanley explained it’s origin.

“This belonged to a Major Smyth from the North Irish Horse, W. B. Smyth, North Irish Horse,” he says, reading the faced ink on the inside flap.

“He was from Strabane. His son gave it to me as he knew I was making a collection, you see. And that was all round the Somme. He survived; he came home,” Stanley says, treating the bag with great reverence.

The bag is draped over an original ‘trench coat’ about which Stanley has no information. Lifting another bag from the table in front of him, Stanley reveals it’s secrets - it is a map case, complete with the original felt protector inside, to help protect maps from the elements.

“This is an officer’s map case. They needed to know where they were and what was going on, so they all carried maps and they carried them inside these cases,” he says, unfolding up a triptych of flaps, and pointing to square hatching, he reveals the squares serve as a grid reference.

Worn over the shoulder, the case also had little pockets for pens or pencils.

Not finished with his wartime trophies, he goes on to talk about his modest collection of medals dotted along the front of his table display.

“These three here are just the ordinary war medals for the First World War. That’s King George V,” he says pointing to the front of the first one mounted with gold ribbon banded on either side with white and blue.

Picking up the third one, with a rainbow-striped coloured ribbon, he declares it “the Peace medal” and then he points out the “Campaign medal”.

Beside them are German medals: “This is the Iron Cross. The German Iron Cross and there is a ‘W’ in the middle of it which stands for Wilhelm II. The Iron Cross went right through to the Second World War, but the Second World War the crosses had a swastika in the middle and that’s how you know the difference. This,” he said, pointing to the one beside the Iron Cross, “is the Wounds Medal. You got this if you got wounded and went back to fight.”

Sitting in the middle of the table was a small, oval battered cigarette canister, bearing the ‘Gallaghers’ branding from the Belfast factory.

“That’s a really old one. That’s a First World War one too...” he said opening the lid and peeping inside.

Asked what the Princess Royal spoke to him about, Stanley said: “She asked me how did I get involved in all this and I told her about my uncle, Eddie, my mother’s eldest brother. I was kinda reared in the knowledge of Uncle Eddie. My mother kind of worshiped him, you know, and broke her heart when the word came back that he had been killed.

“He was a stretcher bearer and he went out into ‘Noman’s Land’ with his friend and a stretcher to pick up a wounded officer when, unfortunately, over came a German shell and they were blown to pieces. They never did find his body. His name is on the Tyne Cot Cemetery near Ypres. It would have been on the Menin Gate, but they ran out of space on the Menin Gate. There are 57,000 names on the Menin Gate, but it wasn’t enough, so they had to build another wall to put the names on,” he said.

Asked for his thoughts on the Centenary Wood at Faughan Valley, Mr McMinn said: “I think it is a wonderful idea. It could not have come to a better place.”

To view a video of Mr McMinn with the Princess Royal go to www.londonderrysentinel.co.uk and check the ‘Features’ or ‘Nostalgia’ tabs.