Casualties

This page shows the names of all North Irish Horse cavalrymen who died during or shortly after the war.

Deciding who to include in this list was not as easy as it might at first seem. The North Irish Horse went through several transformations and amalgamations through the War. Do I include the men who joined the 9th (North Irish Horse) Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers as infantry recruits and transfers from other units, for example? Do I include the troopers of the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons (Service Squadron), who were part of the 2nd Regiment North Irish Horse from 1916 to 1917, but maintained a separate identity throughout? In the end, any decision on where to draw the line could only be subjective. I hope at least to be clear where I have set the boundaries.

Included are all casualties who, during the War, served in any of the six North Irish Horse cavalry squadrons, the two North Irish Horse cavalry regiments, or the North Irish Horse cyclist regiment. Men of the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons (Service Squadron) are therefore included, as are North Irish Horsemen who died after transferring to another unit (the Royal Irish Rifles, for example). Not included are casualties who had served with the North Irish Horse before, but not during the War, and infantrymen in the 9th (North Irish Horse) Battalion, Royal Irish Fusiliers who had not served in North Irish Horse cavalry units.

The great majority of casualties occurred in the last year of the War (some 63%), with October 1918 being the worst month as the Allied armies drove hard to force back the collapsing German forces. Similar casualties were sustained in March, April and August 1918 during the final German offensives on the Somme and south of Ypres, and the Allied assault in August. Prior to 1918 the worst periods had been August 1917 (Passchendaele) and November 1917 (Cambrai). It was as infantry that the North Irish Horsemen sustained the most casualties. Only one-in-eight deaths occurred while they were serving as a cavalry unit.

Three lists are provided below, arranged:

• Chronologically
• Alphabetically
• By place of burial or memorial

A note on Service Numbers: All men (not officers) were assigned a Service Number on enlistment. These numbers were linked to individual units, so when a man moved to a new unit, they were given a new number. Thus, men of the 2nd Regiment North Irish Horse received new numbers (between 41179 and 41645) when they were absorbed into the 9th Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers in September and October 1917. Sometimes the numbers had a letter as a prefix. For example in the case of the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons (Service Squadron), recruited in the north of Ireland soon after the War broke out, the prefix was UD - Ulster Dragoons. In mid-1917 the men of the 1st Regiment North Irish Horse were allocated new 'Corps of Hussars' service numbers (between 70000 and 73000), often shown with an 'H' prefix.