| Regiment/Service: |
5th Cyclist Battalion, North Irish Horse (British Army) |
| Date Of Birth: |
31/01/1890
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| Died: |
16/08/1918 (Killed in Action) |
| Age: |
28 |
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Wesley Charles McClelland was the son of Sloan and Sarah McClelland. He was born on 31st January 1890 in Cookstown. He was one of twelve children, eleven surviving. His father was a baker and grocer with a shop in William Street. Wesley was a baker also. Wesley enlisted in Cookstown. After taking part in the action of the German Spring Offensive of March 1918, the Regiment was further reduced when an officer and 13 men were attached to 64th Brigade, 21st Division on 14th August 1918. Two days later, on the Friday 16th August 1918, Private Wesley McClelland was killed in action as the division prepared for another attack on the Somme.
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The village of Beaumont-Hamel was attacked on 1 July 1916 by the 29th Division, with the 4th on its left and the 36th (Ulster) on its right, but without success. On 3 September a further attack was delivered between Hamel and Beaumont-Hamel and on 13 and 14 November, the 51st (Highland), 63rd (Royal Naval), 39th and 19th (Western) Divisions finally succeeded in capturing Beaumont-Hamel, Beaucourt-sur-Ancre and St. Pierre-Divion. Following the German withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line in the spring of 1917, V Corps cleared this battlefield and created a number of cemeteries, of which Ancre British Cemetery (then called Ancre River No.1 British Cemetery, V Corps Cemetery No.26) was one. There were originally 517 burials almost all of the 63rd (Naval) and 36th Divisions, but after the Armistice the cemetery was greatly enlarged when many more graves from the same battlefields and from the following smaller burial grounds.
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