THROUGH THE ARCHIVES: Militia sergeant meets a tragic death by drowning near Downpatrick

From the News Letter, July 31, 1880

“On Wednesday afternoon, a sergeant in the Royal South Down Militia, named Samuel Patterson, met his death by drowning under very melancholy circumstances,” reported the News Letter on this day in 1880.

Sergeant Patterson along with a number of other sergeants on the staff of the regiment had gone down to the Quoile River for “the purpose of bathing”.

Patterson was the last to go into the river and he happened to step in from a shelving rock that led into deep water. As soon as he was in he asked another sergeant named Keery to hold up his head [Patterson’s] in order that he might learn to swim. It was at this stage that the two soldiers found themselves “beyond their depth”.

Keery, however, succeeded in getting himself back into a shallower part of the river and immediately called for assistance from a Sergeant Lynas, who was also bathing at the time.

Lynas immediately went to rescue Patterson but as soon as he reached the drowning man he was pulled under by the panicking soldier.

Seeing the plight of the two men in the Quoile Colour-Sergeant Bell swam to the spot.

Lynas was then plucked from the water by a boat that had joined the rescue, but despite Bell’s gallant efforts to save Patterson he “unfortunately drowned in sight of his comrades”.

Patterson, who had been long connected with the Royal South Down Militia left a wife and four children to mourn his untimely loss, the youngest of the four children had only been born the previous Friday.

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