Private William Boyle
William Boyle (left) and his brother Joseph
William Boyle was born on 14 December 1893 at Buckna, Ballymena, County Antrim, the tenth of eleven children of farmer Charles Boyle and his wife Sarah (née Moorhead). By the time of the 1911 Census he was living at Buckna with his widowed mother and four of his nine surviving siblings, and working on the family farm.
Boyle enlisted in the North Irish Horse between 22 and 26 August 1916 (No.2248 – later Corps of Hussars No.71722). He trained at the regiment's Antrim reserve camp before embarking for France sometime between 1916 and 1918, where he was posted to one of the squadrons of the 1st North Irish Horse Regiment. This regiment served as corps cavalry to VII, XIX, then V Corps from its establishment in May 1916 until February-March 1918, when it was dismounted and converted to a cyclist unit, serving as corps cyclists to V Corps until the end of the war.
Boyle remained with the regiment throughout the war. On 20 February 1919 he was demobilised and transferred to Class Z, Army Reserve.
Soon after the war Boyle emigrated to Canada, living with family members in Brandon, Manitoba, before returning to Northern Ireland. On 20 December 1934 he married Isabella Fenton Crammond in Omagh. By 1951 they were living at The Burnside, Upper Buckna, William working as an egg inspector. He died in the Waveney Hospital, Ballymena, on 27 January that year and was buried in the Buckna New Cemetery.
Ballymena Observer, 2 February 1951
Image sourced from Ancestry.com Public Member Trees - contributor 'boblaublaw'.