Queen unveils statue to VC hero of Somme
WHEN the newly crowned Queen visited Northern Ireland in 1953, she met one of Ulster’s greatest First World War heroes, Sgt Robert Quigg VC.
Today, 63 years on, she unveiled a life-size bronze statue of Sgt Quigg in his home village of Bushmills, Co Antrim, and met relatives of the soldier, who died in 1955 aged 70.
Sgt Quigg was awarded the Victoria Cross in July 1916 after spending seven hours making forays into no man’s land to bring back wounded comrades during the Battle of the Somme.
A Private with 12th Bn The Royal Irish Rifles at the time, he took part in three successive attempts to reach the German trenches on July 1, 1916. The statue was unveiled in the week the Somme centenary will be marked.
Sgt Quigg’s great-nephew Leonard Quigg, a retired schoolteacher who spoke to the Queen, said his ancestor came back to Bushmills after receiving his medal in January 1917. “There was a huge celebration and he was the centre of attention but at the end he wouldn’t speak,” he said. “He was too shy and his father had to speak for him. So, that tells you the sort of man he was.”
Sgt Quigg was 29 when he signed up to fight in the First World War and 31 when his heroics on the first day of the Somme earned him his Victoria Cross.
His great-nephew said he would have been quietly pleased by the statue but may have been “embarrassed” by all the pomp and ceremony.
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh had begun their visit on Monday evening, when Her Majesty met Stormont’s Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness. When he asked if she was well, she replied: “Thank you very much – I’m still alive”.