North Irish Horse - Gallery - In memoriam

In memoriam

Corporal Charles Edward Houston

Charles Edward Houston was born on 9 April 1894 at Young Street, Lisburn, County Down, the last of nine children of power loom tenter Thomas Houston and his wife Sarah (nee Daly). By 1911 he was living with his family at Doagh Road, Whitehouse, County Antrim, and working as a power loom mechanic.

Houston enlisted in the North Irish Horse at Antrim on 1 November 1915 (No.1767). At the end of December 1916 he was one of forty North Irish Horsemen who transferred to the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (No.40645). They embarked for France on 9 January 1917 and were posted to the 10th Battalion, joining it at Ploegsteert Wood on the Ypres front.

Houston saw action with his battalion and was wounded in the Battle of Cambrai in November and December 1917.

On 21 January 1918 the 10th Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, was disbanded and most of its men, including Houston, were transferred to the 2nd Battalion.

On the night of 1 October 1918 the battalion moved into the line on Hill 41 near Wijfwegen east of Ypres. The following day, according to the battalion war diary:

The post of "C" Coy. at Twig Farm was this afternoon driven out by an enemy attack under a heavy artillery and Machine Gun barrage but was retaken by a counter attack under Capt. Hardy, M.C. and a company of the 9th Bn immediately afterwards. ... The day ended with fairly heavy enemy shelling and almost complete silence on the part of our artillery.

From 1 to 3 October the battalion lost two officers wounded, and six other ranks killed, ten missing and 40 wounded. Corporal Houston was one of those killed – in the fighting on 2 October. He was buried in a temporary cemetery just north of Vijfwegen (map reference 28.K.18.c.8.0), the location marked with a cross. After the war his body was exhumed and re-buried at Dadizeele New British Cemetery, Moorslede, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium, grave IV.B.15. The gravestone inscription reads:

40645 CORPORAL
C. E. HOUSTON
ROYAL INNISKILLING FUS.
2ND OCTOBER 1918 AGE 24

THE LORD HATH GIVEN
AND THE LORD HATH TAKEN AWAY
UNTIL THE DAY DAWN