A large number of club members, ex-servicemen and cadets gathered at Upritchard Park on Thursday 17th May for the formal unveiling of a brass commemorative plaque by Lady Sylvia Hermon MP.

Following an introduction by Club President Tony Heffernan, Gerry Drennan gave the background to how this plaque came about, and read out the names of those members and players who gave their lives and also served during the first World War. His address is as follows:

"Lady Hermon, Distinguished Guests and Club Members.

This project began in early 2015 following a chance conversation in the Club between Tony Heffernan, current President, Jim Lacey, the then President and myself about our lack of any tangible information or record on the role of Club Members during the Great War.

Tony Heffernan had already amassed a considerable archive of Club Photographs bequeathed by past members and these dated from the early 1900's so we felt sure we could use some of them to assist our cause. Articles on our Club Website and in the Spectator newspaper by our PRO Roger Corbett about our search brought it to t he attention of Club Members and the local community. I then consulted the Archivist of Bangor Grammar School, It Col Barry Greenaway and he kindly provided a list of Past Pupils of the period which also recorded if they had served in the Forces or were indeed killed in action. I then correlated this with names from Barry Niblock's excellent book, REMEMBERING THEIR SACRIFICE in the GREAT WAR: The War Dead of North Down.
This was added to by the Royal BRITISH Legion BOOK OF REMEMBERANCE held in North Down Museum, which records ,with Photographs, the names of all the men from the Borough who were killed during the conflict. Other very useful information, provided by Ken Switzer, from Obituaries placed in the Northern Whig news paper gave valuable information on two players not recorded in any of the aforementioned sources.

Armed with this information we eventually had a list of TEN confirmed Club Members who had died and a further ELEVEN who had joined the Colours .

The next step was to design an illustrated record of those who had died using Club Team Photographs from the period and photographs from the British Legion book in the in North Down Museum. In this regard I must thank the staff in the Museum, especially the Manager, Heather McGuicken and Gary McCormick, the Manager of Multi Media Production Department for their patience and great skill in producing the finished record which is on display in the Club Function Room, upstairs.

The final part of the project was in acquiring a brass sheet, sourced by Jim Lacey, designing the layout and engraving the brass tablet. Club member Hugh Anderson designed the layout and Peter Orr of the SOUTH EAST REGIONAL COLLEGE, ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT carried out the engraving.

My thanks to all the above and to Ian Gray, Bangor Spectator, for their dedicated support in the realisation of this event this evening.

Thank you."

Credit is due to Tony Heffernan, Gerry Drennan and Jim Lacey for all the hard work they have put in to make this event not only run so smoothly but also reflect the solemnity of the occasion.