Corporal Dan Dunglinson

Medal Index Card

Newcastle Daily Chronicle 31/07/1916

Photo: Brian Chandler

In Newcastle (St.John's Westgate and Elswick) Cemetery is a family headstone for Dunglinson which reads:

In
Loving Memory
of Emma Gilhespy,
wife of
John Haliburton Dunglinson,
who died September 2nd 1915,
aged 54 years.
Dan, son of J.H. Dunglinson,
Corporal 16th Northumberland Fusiliers,
killed in action in France
July 1st 1916, aged 26 years.
William, son of J.H. Dunglinson,
Second Lieutenant
1st Northumberland Fusiliers,
killed in action in France
August 21st 1918, aged 32 years.
also of the above
John Haliburton Dunglinson
who died April 10th 1925,
aged 81 years.

Dan was the youngest son of John H. and his second wife Margaret (Gibson) Dunglinson and was born at Hexham in 1890. Margaret died in 1898. The family moved to Balmoral, Moorside, Fenham by 1911 and after the war they lived at 53, the Esplanade in Whitley Bay. Father John was a Railway Goods Agent for the North East Railway Company.

In 1911 William, Victor and Dan were Railway Clerks. Dan worked for the North Eastern Railway Company in the Goods Audit Office office which was then located in Forth Station, Newcastle. He had been with the N.E.R. for 11 years.

Dan Dunglinson was a well known local footballer, commencing his career with Brighton West End, and assisting that club to win the Northern Amateur League in 1909-10. He afterwards joined Blyth Spartans, became captain and assisted them to win the Aged Miners' Cup Competition in 1911-12. Before the war Dan played as an amateur full-back for Newcastle United. He was reserve man for the Amateur Team which played the Germans at Berlin and was also with the local team at The Hague. In January 1914 he captained the North team in the International Trial Match at Oxford.

Dan and his brothers Victor and William joined the "Commercials" on the 6th September 1914.

The War History NUT068 shows that Corporal Dan Dunglinson was an early recruit as his serial number is 5.

TheNewcastle Journal 08/10/1914 reads:-

Mr J.H. Dunglinson, Newcastle has three sons in the Commercial Battalion and two sons in law who were in British East Africa when war was declared have joined the East African Volunteers, A nephew is in the North Eastern Railway Battalion. Mr Dunglinson's father and brother were in the Royal Horse Guards and 2nd Life Guards respectively and he himself is an old Artillery Volunteer. Not a bad family record it will be agreed.

On the 30th October 1915, the 16th Battalion played a football match against Bath City, eventually beating Bath City 3 - 0. [Private] Dunglinson then captained the 16th Battalion Football team.

Dan (and William) went out with the 16th Battalion to France on November 22nd 1915. Dan was with 'A' Company, 4th platoon.

By the time of the Somme offensive, 1st July 1916, Dan had been transferred to the 1st Platoon, still in 'A' Company. He was one of the first to jump out of the trenches when the order to charge was given, but was also one of the first to fall.

[This was one of two companies selected, who were in the first wave on the 1st July. The other was 'B' Company which was commanded by Captain P.G. Graham who was killed in the same attack.]

In his will Dan left his assets (£106 11s 7d) to his father John H Dunglinson then a retired Railway Superintendent.

Captain Victor Dunglinson was wounded in the head and leg June 1916. His steel helmet saved him. Victor was captain of Gosforth Nomads Rugby Football Club.

2nd Lieutenant William Dunglinson (16/6) died of wounds on the 21st August 1918 aged 33 years.

Source: N.E.R. Railway Magazine 1916

Tyne and Wear Archive and Museum Services

Newcastle Daily Chronicle 31/07/1916 which reports him as missing.

Footnote:
On 27th June, 2015, in Authuile, in the Ancre Valley, where so many members of the Northumberland Fusiliers fell, a plaque was unveiled to the battalions. A bench was also placed beside the church.

In order to commemorate the strong sporting history of the 16th Battalion, a box containing sports gear was left with the Mayor of Authuile to be opened once a year on Remembrance Day. The box contains replica footballs and vintage football shirts, including one bearing the name of Dunglinson on the back.

Dan Dunglinson is remembered on the York Railway Memorial, in Newcastle on NUT010, in NUT068 page 96, 150 and 175, NUT168 and at Fenham on F31.07

His story is also told in To The Glory of God: Newcastle United and The Great War Paul Joannou; 2018; Novo Publishing ltd., ISBN 978 0 95 681562 0.

The CWGC entry for Lieutenant W. Dunglinson
The CWGC entry for Corporal Dunglinson