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Private William Ewart Hamilton

 

William Ewart Hamilton was born on 26 March 1899 at Ballynabraggett, Donacloney, County Down, the third or fourth of four children of farmer Robert Hamilton and his wife Viola (née Hamilton). By the time of the 1911 Census he was living at Ballynabraggett with his parents and one of his two surviving siblings.

Hamilton enlisted in the North Irish Horse around September 1918 (regimental number unknown). His name appears on a list in the Portadown News of 5 October 1918 of men in the Armagh area who were in the first batch to offer themselves towards completing the quota of 2,580 recruits for the Armagh area for the Irish Recruiting Council.

He probably trained at the regimental base camp at Antrim until demobilised and transferred to Class Z of the Army Reserve in 1919.