Private Samuel Austin
This North Irish Horseman was probably the Samuel Austin (or Estin) born on 15 April 1890 at Crevilly Valley, Ballymena, County Antrim, the first of eight children of labourer (later surfaceman) Hans (or Hance) Austin and his wife Agnes (or Nancy) (née O'Neill). By the time of the 1911 Census he was living at Ballee, Ballymena, with his parents and his six surviving siblings, and working as a linen weaver.
Austin enlisted in the North Irish Horse on 15 September 1916 (Regimental Number 2274 or 2275; later in the war he was issued Corps of Hussars No.71734). This was immediately following an appearance in the Ballymena courthouse in which Austin was tried as a deserter under the Military Service Act. According to a report in the Ballymena Observer:
Sergeant Duffy deposed that acting from instructions which he had received from the recruiting officer in Glasgow he arrested the defendant ... on the charge of being an absentee under the Military Service Act. The defendant had been in Scotland from February, 1915, until September of the same year, and he registered in Glasgow under the National Registration Act on the 14th August, and gave in as his profession a labourer. He returned to Ireland in September of the same year. When witness interviewed the defendant on the 30th ult. he claimed to be exempted from service, on the grounds that he was engaged on Government work with Messrs. John Dinsmore & Son, of Oldgreen Woollen Mills, Kells, Ballymena, and that he was a native of Ireland, and that his permanent address was there. The facts were communicated to the military authorities, who subesquently ordered his arrest.
Austin's defence rested on a number of grounds, including that he was not a resident of Scotland, and that he had worked there as an Irish migratory labourer.
... he had gone to Scotland, but never intended to reside permanently there, and after he had been injured at his work at the Atlas Engineering Works he worked a week longer after he had been off for a fortnight, and then returned to Ireland where he was employed by Messrs. Dinsmore & Son, Kells.
The court found against him, ordering that he be handed over to a military escort. It was noted, however, that he had stated "if he had to go he would join an Irish regiment for preference." It appears that this is what took place, Austin joining the North Irish Horse.
Austin trained at the regiment's reserve camp at Antrim, remaining there until the end of the war. On 8 January 1919 he was discharged, being 'surplus to military requirements, not having suffered impairment since entry into the service' (paragraph 392 xxv(a), King's Regulations).
After the war Austin returned to Ballymena, marrying Rosina Clarke there on 3 January 1923. He died in Glasgow on 15 April 1949.
Image of Austin, his wife and child, sourced from Ancestry.com Public Member Trees - contributor 'AlisonIsabella'.