234837 Pte. John James Diver British Army 6th Btn. Royal Irish Regiment from:Derry, Ireland (d.21st August 1916) Private John James Diver, 6th Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment was killed in a night raid on a German trench on the Western Front near Loos on 21st August 1916. The war diary entry mentions the raiding party using Bangalore Torpedoes, which were explosive charges placed within tubes and used to clear obstacles like barbed wire whilst under fire. Officers who were killed that night are named in the diary, Lieutenants Fitzgibbon and Byrne. Five ‘other ranks’ were killed, among them my great uncle John James Diver. His unit was moved from the frontline the next day. He left a young widow and children back in Derry, Ireland. My grandfather William Diver (John James’ younger brother) was also in the 6th Battalion and in a field hospital being treated for shell shock when his brother was killed. He survived the war, and in June 1940 whilst then serving in the Royal Engineers was evacuated from Dunkirk which is only about 50 miles from where his brother was buried 24 years previously. He was later captured by the Germans on the island of Crete in 1941 and spent four years in a POW camp in Germany.
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