Look up for these two men.

[mackers]

Hi,

My mother is 85 and we were talking today about where she came from in Belfast's Short Strand district and she asked me if I could find out about 2 young lads that she knew who served in WW2.
She said they were both killed on the same day but she is old and her memory isn't great these days. I looked up CWGC and couldn't find any sign of them.

Their names were John Stewart and Joseph (Joe) O'Brien maybe O'Brian. I was wndering if anyone on the site would be able to find them. Here's hoping.

Ed

[t mo]

hi ed
as you say i can,t find any o brien or o brians at all for ww2 but there are a good number of john stewarts but without more info it looks unlikely you,ll find them  .
regards
trevor

[neil1821]

Well, I can see Stewart's and O'Brien's but nothing that immediately jumps out as being these two chaps.

I think you need to ask your mother a couple of key things to make progress with this-
- does she remember if they were Army, Navy, RAF, Merchant Navy or indeed civilians?
- were they killed "away at war" somewhere or in the UK or more specifically Belfast? (did notice a few Belfast burials when looking at O'Briens & Stewarts, by implication meaning they died there)
- Any clue if this was early, mid or late wartime?

If you prompt her with specific questions, you never know it might jog some memories!

[mackers]

First thanks for your replies. As you have said I'd need to get more information on the men but the problem is my mother is very forgetful and I think she may be confused as to the both of them being killed together. There was one John Strewert in the Marine Corps that kind of fitted the bill as his parents were from Belfast but O'Brien not much doing there. She did say they were both very young only 17 or so but this is a bit thin as info goes. I'll try again to see if she can clear up a bit more on the memory banks. It must have effected here badly as she go quite emotional about it when she asked me.

Regards

Ed

[Papa1]

Try Geoff's search engine and use the word Belfast in the section "include all words". This is what I came up for J O'Brien and also the link to the search engine. There's only a few for Stewart's as well.

http://www.hut-six.co.uk/cgi-bin/search39-47.php

O'BRIEN, J F
Rank:Trooper
Service No:14187324
Date of Death:21/07/1947
Age:20
Regiment/Service:Royal Armoured Corps
 17th/21st Lancers
Grave Reference9. J. 12.
CemeteryRAMLEH WAR CEMETERY
Additional Information:
Son of George and Edith O'Brien, of Belfast, Northern Ireland.

[writer133]

Twenty-year-old Tpr James Francis O'Brien was critically wounded on the night of 19 July 1947 when his vehicle was blown up by an IED during a patrol in Jerusalem. He died in hospital on the 21st.

Can't help with Stewart as he was in the 17th/21st.

[cath151]

There is this
 https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2485327/o'brien,-joseph/
Forces records gives the additional info that he was born in Belfast and died at sea.

Cathy