8th Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (British Army)
Date Of Birth:
09/05/1898
Died:
16/08/1917 (Killed in Action)
Age:
19
Summary
Alexander McKinney was the son of Alexander and Rachel McKinney. His father died a month before he was born. His mother died during childbirth. Alexander McKinney was an orphan from the day he was born in the Loup, He enlisted in Omagh, joining the 8th Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and after training he was sent with the draft to France in the autumn of 1916. Private Alexander McKinney was killed in action during the Third Battle of Ypres on 16th August 1917, aged 19.
Further Information
Alexander McKinney was the son of Alexander and Rachel McKinney (nee Griffin). They were married on 17th December 1897 in Magherafelt.
Alexander was born on 9th May 1898 in the Magherafelt area. It seems his mother died during childbirth as she died on the same day. She was 39 years old.
Even more tragically, Alexander Senior had died just a month before, on 7th April 1898 in the Magherafelt area. He was 55 years old.
So Alexander McKinney was an orphan from the day he was born in the Loup, Moneymore.
The 1901 census lists Alexander as age 2 at house 16 in Ballyriff, Loop living with the Taylor family.
The 1911 census lists Alexander as age 12 at house 23 in Ballyriff, Loop. He was living with his cousin, John McKinney, who was a farmer. He was still at school.
Alexander was a member of Saltersland Presbyterian Church.
He enlisted in Omagh, joining the 8th Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and after training he was sent with the draft to France in the autumn of 1916.
Private Alexander McKinney was killed in action during the Third Battle of Ypres on 16th August 1917, aged just 19.
Private Alexander McKinney has no known grave and is commemorated on panel 70-72 on Tyne Cot Memorial, Belgium.
The CWGC record Private Alexander McKinney as the son of A McKinney.
