Peterborough seaman will be part of new Irish war exhibit
A Peterborough seaman’s story will be part of an exhibit in the Northern Ireland town of Coleraine marking the 75th anniversary of the Second World War.
Joanne Honeyford, a volunteer with the cultural and historical centre in Coleraine, Ireland, said she was intrigued by a story from a local newspaper in May 1945 that she read while doing research for the exhibit.
“It resonated with me as a tragic accident which left a young man dead on what should have been a joyous occasion,” Honeyford said.
On May 9, 1945, the day after Nazi Germany surrendered to the Allied forces at the end of the war, John Archibald Paterson, a sick berth attendant with HMCS Leaside, was involved in an accident.
Paterson, who was from Peterborough, was celebrating the end of the war in the small coastal town of Portrush when he fell from a nearby cliff.
The story surrounding Paterson’s death is one of family lore, said Fred Nix, Paterson’s nephew, from his home in Mono, 200 kilometres west of Peterborough.
While celebrating the end of the war, Paterson was facing a bonfire, turned away from it and stepped off the edge of the cliff, Nix said.
Nix is not even sure how his family knows these details, he said. Nix was a young child when his uncle, whom everyone referred to as Jack, died.
“It was considered an enormous tragedy in the family,” he said. “In fact, at one point, I had the letter from when he died in service. I think it would have been from the king, but they sent a letter, an official letter with a wax seal on it announcing the death of John Paterson.”
Paterson, son of Frank and Eva Paterson, enlisted on June 14, 1944, serving only 11 months in the navy before the end of the war and his death at 19.
Nix said his aunt, Paterson’s brother William’s wife, Barbara Carolyn Paterson nee Boake, was the genealogist of his family.
“When she died, I inherited all of her stuff,” Nix said. “Books and books and books of stuff, just tons of it and she has one whole album on Jack (John) Paterson, and I mean it is big.”
Paterson was buried in the Londonderry City Cemetery after his death, he said.
“My brother, a few years ago, went to Ireland, where he (John) is buried,” Nix said. “My brother went to the cemetery and he found the stone. I think he took, or his wife took a picture, but he did find it.”