| George Stirrup was the son of James and Catherine Stirrup. James Stirrup and Catherine Irvine / Erwin / Irwin were married on 31st December 1879 in the district of Fermanagh.
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| George Stirrup was born on 21st November 1892 in Enniskillen. He was one of at least eight children.
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| Known family: James Stirrup, Catherine Kate Stirrup, William James Stirrup (born 21st December 1882), Elizabeth Stirrup (born 29th July 1884), William Stirrup (born 8th August 1886), George Stirrup (born 22nd February 1889), John Stirrup (born 20th May 1891), Annie Stirrup (born 17th June 1892), Irvine Stirrup (born 8th September 1894, died 17th November 1895), Frederick Stirrup (born 22nd September 1896, died 8th December 1896).
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| The 1901 lists George as age 10, living with the family at house 17.2 in Head Street, Enniskillen. His father was a general labourer. George was still at school.
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| George’s father, James Stirrup, died on 9th September 1902 in the Enniskillen area. He was 57 years old.
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| George Stirrup enlisted with the Royal Dublin Fusiliers on 22nd February 1909.
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| George’s mother, Catherine Stirrup, died on 8th March 1911 in the Enniskillen area. She was 55 years old.
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| The 1911 census does not list George as living with his brothers at house 6.2 in Abbey Street, Enniskillen.
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| World War 1
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| From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 24th October 1914: John Stirrup (brother of George Stirrup)
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| John Stirrup, a young private of the Inniskilling Fusiliers from Cookstown, has been invalided home from injuries received in France, but is re-joining at the end of the week, and says he is ‘game enough yet’. Stirrup, who is just twenty, is a native of Enniskillen, but his people came to Cookstown when he was a boy and he worked in Greenvale Spinning Mill. He left three years ago and was with friends in Enniskillen when he decided to join the army and enlisted in the spring of 1913 in the 2nd Battalion of the Inniskilling Fusiliers. This battalion was at Dover when the war broke out and went to France with the Expeditionary Force on 23rd August. They were only two hours in the rest camp at Havre when ordered to the front, and got to Amiens on 25th August, where they waited as reinforcements to the fighting line. The British were retiring however with the French, who were falling back on Paris, and after three days at Amiens they were ordered to move. Young Stirrup was loading transport wagons, and was on the top to fix boxes when the load capsized and he came to the ground, being injured in the fall. He was sent back to England, the boat in which he sailed having seven hundred wounded, besides 88 German soldiers taken prisoner. Stirrup has a brother working in Orritor Quarry and was visiting him before re-joining and hopes to see fighting this time. He is a member of the Inniskilling Battalion of the U.V.F.
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| From the Tyrone Constitution dated 7th April 1916: John Stirrup (brother of George Stirrup) (tbc)
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| 23401 Private J H Stirrup, No 2 Company, shell wound, 10th March 1916. His wife resides at Orritor, Cookstown, Tyrone.
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| George moved to Cookstown where he married his wife Annie. George and Annie Stirrup had two children, George Albert Stirrup and Victor Stirrup. George Albert died on the 15th August 1919, aged four months. No details of this family can be found on GRONI.
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| From the Mid Ulster Mail dated August 1919: (tbc)
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“We dream, we see your dear kind face and kiss your cold still brow,
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But in our hearts we know, we have no Geordie now,
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Home to Jesus, home to many
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Every wave of trouble o’er
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He is with those other loved ones
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On that happy peaceful shore."
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| Submitted by George and Annie Stirrup
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| George left the army on 7th August 1920, after seeing service throughout the First World War.
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| World War 2
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| George Stirrup re-enlisted with the Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps on 6th January 1940 in Omagh, Co. Tyrone. He was posted on 5th March 1940 and appointed Lance Corporal on 30th March 1940, being shipped out with the British Expeditionary Force on 29th March 1940.
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| In May 1940, during the withdrawal to Dunkirk, Lance Corporal George Stirrup was listed as ‘Missing in Action’.
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| From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 15th June 1940: Private Victor Stirrup (son of George Stirrup)
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| Local men who were with the B.E.F. in Flanders and are at present on leave include Private Victor Stirrup of Coagh Street.
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| From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 22nd June 1940: Sergeant John Stirrup (brother of George Stirrup?)
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| Local men of the B.E.F. who arrived home on leave since Friday last were: Sergeant John Stirrup, Pioneers, of William Street, Cookstown.
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| His wife was informed he was a prisoner of war in September 1940.
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| From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 7th September 1940:
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| Mrs George Stirrup, of Coagh Street, Cookstown, has been notified by post card from Germany that her husband, Private George Stirrup, Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps (A.M.P.C.), is a prisoner of war there. The card is dated 20th June, and was received on Tuesday. Private Stirrup was reported missing in May last. He served during the Great War with the Inniskillings.
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| From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 7th September 1940:
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| The Tuesday Night Club, Cookstown, has received a cheque for £64 odd for a large quantity of scrap metal collected and sold. Since July, when the first collections of scrap metal and waste paper were made, the club has received £148. This will be devoted to war charities and comforts. There are now six local men known to be prisoners of war, and the club has sent 30s to the Red Cross Society for parcels to be sent to Private George Stirrup, Private David Hodgett and Private J Darragh. Parcels will be sent through the Society every fortnight to the prisoners, who of course, will get a parcel each week from the Red Cross Society, irrespective of other organisations. The Cookstown Depot of the Ulster Gift Fund will also send a parcel to each man once a fortnight.
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| From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 2nd May 1942:
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| The Cookstown Branch of the Ulster Gift Fund gratefully acknowledge receipt of £41 7s 5d for the Red Cross Prisoners of War Fund, the proceeds of the children’s concert organised by Miss Hutchinson. Parcels are regularly sent by that Fund to prisoners of war through the Red Cross arrangements, and postcards have been received from some of them, one of which, delivered a short time ago and dated 2nd March 1942 is as follows:-
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| ‘Just a few lines to let you know that I received a letter from the British Red Cross, informing me that the Cookstown Branch of the Ulster Gift Fund are contributing towards the parcels I receive. Kindly convey my very best thanks to the members. I have previously acknowledged receipt of cigarette parcels. Yours sincerely, G McPartland.’
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| The names of local (Urban) prisoners of war, known to the local committee are: Corporal James Creggan, Fusilier John Joseph Darragh, Lance Corporal Robert Larmour, Private Albert Long, Fusilier George McPartland and Lance Corporal George Stirrup, who are all known to be prisoners of war in Germany, and Private David Hodgett, who is interred in Switzerland.
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| Lance Corporal George Stirrup died as a prisoner of war, the result of coronary sclerosis, on 13th June 1943, aged 50. Coronary sclerosis is damage to the cardiac muscle. He was 54 years old.
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| From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 31st July 1943: Roll of Honour
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| STIRRUP – June 1943, at Stalag, Germany. Lance Corporal George Stirrup (prisoner of war), beloved husband of Annie Stirrup, Coagh Street, Cookstown.
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| From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 17th June 1944:
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| STIRRUP – In loving memory of my dear husband, George Stirrup, who died on 13th June 1943 in Germany, prisoner of war.
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‘Far and oft my thoughts do wander
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To the grave in foreign lands
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Where they laid my darling husband
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Placed by strange but tender hands.
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Yet some day I hope to meet him
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When my days in life are fled
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Then in heaven I hope to meet him
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Where no farewell tears are shed.’
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| Ever remembered by his loving wife Annie and son Victor, serving somewhere in Italy.
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| From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 9th December 1944: Letter from Prisoner of War
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| Private George McPartland, whose wife lives at Milburn Street, Cookstown, and who is a prisoner of war in Germany, writes under date 30th October 1944:
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| ‘May I take the liberty to inform you of the death of Private George Stirrup, prisoner of war no. 19301, and late of Coagh Street, Cookstown Northern Ireland, who died of a heart attack at Zeilenzig, Stalag III.B, Germany, on 13th June 1943, after receiving every medical attention. His may friends at Stalag III.B attended his military funeral, and hope you will find it possible to publish this card.’
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| Notice of the death of Private Stirrup appeared in the Mail a considerable time ago, but we publish the letter as it is, we think, the first time we have had news from one prisoner about another local man in the same camp - Editor
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| From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 16th June 1945:
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| STIRRUP – In fond remembrance of my husband, Lance Corporal G Stirrup, who died while prisoner of war in Germany, 13th June 1943.
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‘He sleeps far away in a foreign land
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In a hallowed grave unknown
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But his name is written in letters of gold
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On the hearts he left at home.
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May the heavenly wind blow softly
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Over that sweet and hallowed spot
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Though the sea divides his grave from me
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He will never be forgot’
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| Ever remembered by his loving wife, Coagh Street, Cookstown and his son, C.M.F.
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| Post War
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| From the Mid Ulster Mail, unknown date in 1950, on the anniversary of George’s death.
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'Far away from his native land, with a simple cross at his head,
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He fought and died for Britain, one of God’s honoured dead
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Sleep on dear George, as days roll by, no flowers on the grave you lie.
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For the broad wide ocean keeps us apart, your smiling face forever in my heart.'
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| Submitted by his wife Annie and son Victor.
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| Originally buried in Frankfurt New Cemetery his body was then moved to Berlin 1939 – 1945 War Cemetery, Charlottenburg, Berlin. The cemetery was used in the post war years to bury the remains of Airmen and P.O.W’s who were buried throughout Germany in other cemeteries.
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| Lance Corporal George Stirrup’s remains were buried under the name of George Sterrit, the name inscribed on his headstone. According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the family had been contacted after the war to confirm the details for the inscription. The war grave commission’s records show the name to have been spelt Sterrit. This however is the wrong spelling of the surname.
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| The inscription on his headstone reads: ENFOLD HIM IN THINE ARMS, O LORD, AND LOVE HIM JUST FOR US.
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| Lance Corporal George Stirrup’s son Victor also served throughout the Second World. George was also the great uncle of Air Chief Marshal Sir Graham Eric (Jock) Stirrup.
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| The CWGC record Lance Corporal George ‘Sterritt’ as the son of James and Catherine Stirrup. He is also recorded as the husband of Annie Stirrup of Cookstown, County Tyrone.
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