Robert Larmour Neill (OC 983) attended Campbell College from September 1907 until July 1911.  His family name appears on the clock in Campbell College dining hall.  While at Campbell he was a member of the Officers’ Training Corps and Yates’s House.  He completed his studies at Neuchatel in Switzerland and when he came home he joined the Holywood contingent of the 1st Battalion North Down Regiment Ulster Volunteer Force and became a Company Commander.   He was a keen golfer and cricketer and a member of the Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club. 

 He obtained a commission in the 5th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles (Royal South Downs) in August 1914 and was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in January 1915.  Lieutenant Robert Larmour Neill went to the Front on 22 March 1915 to join the 1st Battalion Royal Irish Rifles and he took out a draft of men from Princess Charlotte of Wales’s Royal Berkshire Regiment.

Lieutenant Robert Larmour Neill was 21 when he was killed in action on 9 May 1915.  He died at the head of his platoon during an advance at Fromelles, after they had reached the first German trench.  He has no known grave and is commemorated on Panel 9 of the Ploegseert Memorial

His brother, James Dermot Neill (not a Campbellian) served with OC James Samuel Davidson OC 45. Dermot Neill was killed on 1 July 1916.

 The 1st Battalion Royal Irish Rifles were part of 25 Brigade during the Battle of Aubers 9-10 May 1915. They were part of the first wave in the attack on the 9th May and in the area of the Front in which they were placed, No mans land was between 100-200 yards across. The Germans had built up their defences and machine guns posts had been established every 20-30 yards and covered no-mans land at knee height. The attack took place at 0530 and 189 members of the 1st Battalion were killed. 467 members of the Battalion were killed or wounded during this attack. More than 11,000 British casualties were sustained on 9 May 1915, the vast majority within yards of their own front-line trench. Mile for mile, Division for Division, this was one of the highest rates of loss during the entire war

Old Campbellian