Corporal John David Buchanan
John David Buchanan was born on 23 January 1888 at Garryharry [Garrowcarry], Letterkenny, County Donegal, the sixth of eight children of farmer David John Buchanan and his wife Mary Jane (nee Buchanan). By the time of the 1911 Census he was living at Garrowcarry with his parents and younger brother and working on the family farm.
Buchanan enlisted in the North Irish Horse on 28 January 1912 (No.659 – later Corps of Hussars No.71059). Soon after, he was promoted to the rank of shoeing smith. He embarked for France with A Squadron on 17 August 1914, seeing action on the retreat from Mons and advance to the Aisne.
At the end of September 1914 he was hospitalised at St Nazaire and then evacuated to the UK for treatment, after which he returned to his squadron in France. On 9 March 1915 he was treated at the No.2 Stationary Hospital Boulogne for a compund fracture of a finger. He was again evacuated to the UK, and then to Ireland – there is a record of him being treated at the Belfast Military Hospital on 29 July 1915.
Whether Buchanan saw any further overseas service is not known at present. He remained with the North Irish Horse throughout the war. On 6 March 1919 he was discharged as 'surplus to military requirements, having suffered impairment since entry into the service' (paragraph 392 xvi(a) King's Regulations).
Buchanan's younger brother, James Allen Buchanan, also served in the North Irish Horse during the war.