CO-CCCF-0007

Record Date: 
4 July 2013
Graveyard: 
Christchurch
Exact wording of epitaph: 

Here Lies

ROBERT CHRISTOPHER ALEXANDER

MAJOR IRISH GUARDS

OF COOLALTA, KILLINARDRISH

LATE OF PORTGLENONE HOUSE   CO. ANTRIM

FEB. 12. 1900,  APRIL 13. 1968.

Memorial Type: 
Headstone
Grave location
County: 
Cork
Latitude: 
51.909888055556
Longitude: 
-8.7929047222222
Number of people commemorated: 
1
People commemorated: 
Title: 
Major
Name: 
Robert Christopher
Surname: 
Alexander
Date of birth - day: 
12
Date of birth - month: 
February
Date of birth - year: 
1900
Date of death - day: 
13
Date of death - month: 
April
Date of death - year: 
1968
Address: 
Coolalta, Killinardrish (and Portglenone House, Co. Antrim)
Notes: 

The headstone bears the crest and motto of the Irish Guards 'Quis Separabit.' The dates 1919-1934 and 1939-1945 possibly indicate periods of military service of Robert Christopher Alexander with the Irish Guards, with the latter period being the duration of World War II.

Robert Christopher Alexander was a member of a distinguished Northern Irish family, his grandfather being Bishop of Meath and two of whose distant cousins were Archbishop of Armagh and Earl Alexander of Tunis. Alexander was too young to take part in WW1, and in WW2 he served in France as an officer in the Irish Guards and took part in the final invasion of Germany. After the war he retired to Coolalta, where he died. His wife, Laura Ina Madeleine Lenox-Coyningham is buried beside him, but separately, in an unmarked grave at her own request (See CO-CCCF-0008). From a prominent Unionist aristocratic family, her father recruited and, at his own expense, outfitted two regiments of the Ulster Volunteers, who were to die in great numbers at the Somme. (Source: ACR Heritage).