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Private John Campbell

 

John Campbell was born on 26 September 1892 at Leslie Hill, Ballymoney, County Antrim, the first of four children of labourer (later spinning mill night-watchman) Hugh Campbell and his wife Mary Jane (née Roxborough). By the time of the 1911 Census he was living with his parents and siblings at nearby Balnamore, and working as a machine-boy in the town's spinning mill.

Campbell enlisted in the North Irish Horse on 16 November 1915 (No.1902). Soon after, on 8 January 1916, he married Mary Cairns at Drumreagh Presbyterian Church, Ballymoney. Their first child, Mary Jane, was born later that year.

At the end of December 1916 Campbell was one of forty North Irish Horsemen who volunteered to transfer to the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. The formal transfer took place on 9 January 1917, and on the same day they embarked for France, where they were posted to the 10th Battalion, joining it at Ploegsteert Wood on the Ypres front on 16 January. Campbell was issued regimental number 40638.

Campbell was wounded in 1917 during Third Ypres, most likely on 16 August at the Battle of Langemarck. Evacuated to the UK for treatment, on 20 June 1918 he was transferred to the Royal Irish Fusiliers (No.30199), but on 7 August 1918 he was discharged due to his wounds (paragraph 392 (xvi), King's Regulations).

For a few years after the war he received a pension due to heart problems which were attributed to his military service.