ANDREW BAILLIE
In the 1890s the dockyard at Portsmouth was building warships at a prodigious rate and required all the workforce it could muster. One of those who took note and moved his family south from Barrow in Furness was Andrew's father John Baillie, a steam engine maker and fitter. As ships were also built at Barrow it must have been a good offer from Portsmouth that made it worth the move.
John Baillie had married Elizabeth Riel in 1891 and over the next ten years they brought four children into the world - Ethel (b. 1892), Lizzie (b. 1894), Andrew (b. 1896) and John (b. 1899). The family moved to Portsmouth a year or so after the birth of the youngest and found a home at 58 Lynn Road, between Queens Road and New Road, Buckland. At the time Lynn Road was being developed so the house was probably new.
The 1911 census records the Baillie family still at Lynn Road but there had been no more children. John snr. was still at the Dockyard whilst Andrew had left school, and, perhaps inspired by his father taken up the trade of tinsmithing.
Andrew was 18 years of age when the Great War began but he did not volunteer in the first wave of enthusiasm. It was probably when recruitment for the 15th (2nd Portsmouth) Battalion of the Hampshire Regiment began on 26th April 1915 that he thought about enlisting. Once he did so he acted soon afterwards as the Battalion was complete by 10th September. After training the men were sent to France in May 1916; Andrew Baillie was killed in action less than a month later.
FURTHER INFORMATION
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission list Private Andrew Baillie (57651), 15th Battalion, Hampshire Regiment, died 01/06/1916. Buried at the Rifle House Cemetery, (Grave Ref: I.E.3.). Son of John and Elizabeth Baillie, of 58, Lynn Rd., Buckland, Portsmouth. Native of Barrow-in-Furness.
Andrew Baillie is remembered on the Buckland United Reformed Church WW1 Memorial and on the Cenotaph. He is not listed in the 'National Roll of the Great War', Section X.
Tim Backhouse
November 2014