Driver Joseph Dornan
Joseph Dornan was born on 4 February 1893 at 50 Market Street, Belfast, the sixth of nine children of bottler Patrick Dornan and his wife Mary (née McWilliams). His mother died when he was just four years old and his father when he was fifteen. At the time of the 1911 Census he was living as a lodger at 58 Market Street, Belfast, at the home of carter Joseph McDonald, and working as an advertising traveller.
Dornan enlisted in the Army Service Corps on 24 April 1911 (No. T/29764).
On 8 September 1914 he embarked for France, where he was attached to either A or C Squadron of the North Irish Horse (probably the former).
The Ballymena Observer of 2 July 1915 published a number of letters of thank from North Irish Horsemen to people who had sent gifts of cigarettes to the troops at the front, including the following:
Miss A. McClean, 22, Mount Street. – Dear Miss. – I now thank you very much for the cigarettes and tobacco which you sent. It is very kind of you to think of us, who are fighting for all at home. I come from Belfast. You can tell all the young slackers you know to come out and don't have to be fetched, and give a hand to crush the Huns. – Driver J. Dornan, A.S.C., attached to N.I.H.
Nothing more has been discovered about Dornan's service during the war. On 11 April 1919 he was discharged, being 'surplus to military requirements, having suffered impairment since entry into the service' (paragraph 392 (xvi)(a), King's Regulations). He was granted a pension due to bronchitis, which was attributed to his military service. In February 1921 his level of disability was assessed at 30 per cent.
At some point after the war he was living at 17 Lagan Street, Belfast.
This page last updated 31 March 2023.