ON a numerous occasions in recent years this page has recounted the awesome heroism displayed by Northern Ireland’s soldiers, sailors and airmen during both world wars.
One was Rifleman Robert Quigg, a young farmer from near the Giant’s Causeway. Quigg was awarded the Victoria Cross on July 1, 1916 for many feats of heroism in no-man’s-land during WW1.
Under intense enemy gunfire he crawled alone, all night long, back and forwards amongst the trenches, mines, mutilated bodies and barbed wire, to rescue his wounded colleagues. Seven times he carried injured soldiers to safety behind Allied lines.
“We have now formed a committee to erect a statue to Robert Quigg V.C. in Bushmills,” local war historian Robert Thompson told me last week.
The group of councillors, historians and other interested parties is called The Robert Quigg V.C. Commemoration Society and “discussion has taken place on the exact position where we would like the statue to be placed,” Robert added.
“The statue should have been placed 80 or 90 years ago,” he said, “it has taken far too long but we are now well on the way to seeing it erected.”
The injured and exhausted Robert Quigg survived his ordeal but he would never tell his terrifying tale.
“Uncle Robert never spoke about his heroism when I knew him in the 1950s,” his niece Jean Gibson recounted on this page last year.
As a child she thought her uncle’s V.C. was a V.G., a youthful muddle augmented by the humble Rifleman who persuaded the wee lassie that the letters stood for ‘Very Good’! It’s more than ‘very good’ that he’ll be remembered with a magnificent statue - it’s a long overdue and hugely deserved honour.
If any readers would like to become involved with the commemoration project please write to Mr Thompson’s email address - Robert@riversideroad.freeserve
