| There is another Private Archibald McAllister, from Ballyronan, who served with the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. He became a prisoner of war.in the summer of 1916. He survived the war.
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| Archibald McAlister was the eldest son of John and Martha Jane McAlister. John McAlister and Jane Forrest were married on 26th December 1891 in the district of Cookstown.
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| Archibald McAllister was born about 1893 in Stevenston, Ayrshire, Scotland.
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| Family: John McAlister, Martha Jane McAlister, Archey McAlister (born about 1893, Scotland), David McAlister (born about 1895, England), Sarah Jane McAlister (born about 1897, England), Alexander McAlister (born 18th August 1898, Belfast), John McAlister (born 31st March 1900, Cookstown)
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| Both census results spell the family name with a single ‘L’. However the CWGC use the longer version, McAllister.
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| The 1901 census lists Archey McAlister as age 8, living with the family at house 30 in Killymoon Street, Cookstown. His father was a labourer in a factory.
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| Archibald’s mother died on the 7th October 1908 in Cookstown. She was 42 years old.
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| John McAllister and Martha McCrum were married on 27th February 1909 in the district of Cookstown.
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| The 1911 census lists Archey McAlister as age 18, living with the family at house 1 in Waterloo Terrace, Cookstown. Archie worked as a Mason's Labourer. His father was a linen factory worker and it confirms that he had remarried in 1909.
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| Archibald McAlister was member of Cookstown True Blues L.O.L.
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| Archie moved to Scotland. Prior to enlisting in the army he had been working in Nobel’s Explosive Works in Stevenston in Ayrshire. Alfred Nobel was the inventor of dynamite, and latterly was the family were the founders of the Nobel Prize.
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| Archibald came home at the end of 1915 and enlisted in Cookstown with the 1st Battalion of the Gordon Highlanders.
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| Private Archibald McAllister was seriously wounded during the Somme offensive and he endured a difficult journey to hospital in Rouen. By the time he reached hospital in the early hours of the morning, he was unconscious. He had suffered serious gunshot wounds to the head.
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| Doctors could not save him. Private Archibald McAllister died of his wounds on 21st July 1916. He was 25 years old.
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| Reverend Dr Richards, a Chaplain at the hospital, wrote a letter of sympathy to the family at Cookstown.
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| Private Archie McAlister is interred in grave A-15-53 at St. Sever Cemetery at Rouen, France.
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| Private Archie McAlister is commemorated on Cookstown Cenotaph and St. Luran’s Church of Ireland Roll of Honour, Derryloran, Cookstown.
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| The CWGC record Private Archibald McAllister as the son of John and Jane McAllister.
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