Friends of the Somme - Mid Ulster Branch  
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Date Information
30/12/2015 In 1919, Mary Ann returned to Ireland alone. By this point, she had lost her husband, her two brothers (both of whom were priests), and her son William Tally Mallon.
30/12/2015 William Mallon was born in Stewartstown, Co. Tyrone near Dungannon. His death is recorded in the Pennsylvania Philadelphia City Death Certificates 1803-1915 Film No. 1011828 digital folder 4008678 image No. 427 ref No. V2P51.They give an estimated birth date of 1833 in Ireland that he was white and married. It also records his death as being on 26th July 1899 in Philadelphia. His birth date on the family headstone at the family grave at St. John the Baptist church at Galbally near Dungannon states his birth as being 11th Sept 1831 and he was born in nearby Stewartstown.
30/12/2015 Mary Ann was born in 1868 and was some 35 years younger than her husband William.
30/12/2015 William and Mary Ann had one son, William Tally Mallon, who was born on 15th April 1899 in Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This date implies his father died three months after William Tally was born.
30/12/2015 William Mallon Snr's obituary notice is interesting showing that the family must have been of good standing thus meriting a High Mass rather than the normal Mass for the dead. The family lived in 330 Armat St. Germantown and attended St. Vincent's Church. Another interesting thing to note that Phoenixville newspapers were asked to copy the obituary, implying they probably had friends and relatives living in that area.
30/12/2015 These were very Irish areas of greater Philadelphia. It is of interest to note that the licence for the inn or bar at 330 Armat Street was immediately applied for within days of William Senior's demise by his widow Mary A. Mallon. One can only suppose that Mary Ann Mallon maintained the bar for support for herself and her young son William Tally Mallon.
30/12/2015 However at some stage his mother remarried a John Branigan. It would appear that when aged about 6 years, the family moved to New York City. He probably had his early education there.
30/12/2015 William Tally Mallon's mother, Mary Ann McKane, immigrated to the U.S. from Clonavaddy, Co. Tyrone in 1868 and married William Mallon.
30/12/2015 Private William Tally Mallon was killed on 29th July 1918, at eighteen years of age, at the Battle of Ourcq near Seringes-et-Nesles, France, by the bullet of a German sniper.
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30/12/2015 Private Mallon was buried on French soil, but Mary Ann sent a letter to the Adjutant General of the U.S. Army, asking for William Tally's remains. “He was my only child, and I would like to have him buried where I intend to be buried,” she wrote. The U.S. government agreed to her request.
30/12/2015 Private Mallon's remains were returned to Dublin aboard the SS Millwater (a coal freighter which was owned by a coal company called Mellonie and Goulder of Ipswich) from Antwerp on Sunday 7th May 1920. Also on board were the remains of 61 other Irish/American Irish Soldiers who perished in WW1 fighting for the AEF. Six of these men where taken to Tyrone for burial. Thomas G Doris to Ardboe, Patrick Grimes to Killeenan (Kildress), William Tally Mallon to Galbally, Stephen Morris to Greencastle, Frank McDermott to Dunmoyle (Ballygawley) and Michael Kearney to Drumquin.
30/12/2015 William Tally Mallon was re-interred in Galbally, Dungannon, County Tyrone on May 20, 1922.
30/12/2015 On 19th May 2012, ninety years after his remains arrived in Ireland, the grave of Private 1st Class William Tally Mallon was rededicated in a ceremony that drew relatives from both the U.S. and Ireland. A new plaque thereon was unveiled by Offaly born Brig. Gen. James Cullen of the U.S. Army Retd. along with a member of the U.S. Consul in Belfast.
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30/12/2015 William Tally Mallon enlisted in the New York 165th Infantry in April 1917, not yet aged 17. He sailed on board the Tunisian from Montreal to Europe, landing in Liverpool in early November 1917, before sailing from Southampton to France.
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