Private Eugene Jerome Harrington
It is not entirely clear when this man served in the North Irish Horse, if at all, but his inclusion on a War Office casualty list in September 1918 with four other North Irish Horseman suggests that he was at least attached to the regiment at the time.
Eugene Jerome Harrington was born on 18 November 1898 in Princes Street, Tralee, County Kerry, the last of six children of mineral water manufacturer John Joseph Harrington and his wife Helena Mary (née Dowling). By the time of the 1911 Census he was living at 76 Acomb Street, Whitworth Park, South Manchester, with his recently-widowed mother and three of his siblings.
Harrington enlisted, or was attested, into the army on 3 October 1916. Whether he was mobilised at this time is not known. If he was, he was probably posted to the South Irish Horse at its regimental headquarters at Cahir, Tipperary.
In early 1918 Harrington applied for a commission in the Royal Flying Corps. Sent for training to the No.2 Officer Cadet Wing on 6 February, within a month he was found to be 'unfit as a Flying Officer in any capacity, but fit for General Service'. On 16 March he was sent to Cahir to join the South Irish Horse. (He was later assigned Corps of Hussars number H/73338.) Although this regiment continued to be active in Ireland, its squadrons in France had been disbanded in 1917, forming the 7th Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles, so reinforcements were no longer being sent from Cahir to France.
Harrington embarked for France later in 1918, probably attached to the 1st North Irish Horse Regiment, which at the time was serving as corps cyclist regiment to V Corps. He was severely wounded in the left leg in late August or early September 1918 during the opening phase of the Advance to Victory offensive. Evacuated to the UK for treatment, on 16 October 1919 he was discharged, being 'no longer physically fit for war service' (paragraph 392 (xvi), King's Regulations). He was granted a pension, his level of disability assessed at 50 per cent.
After the war Harrington returned to Manchester, where he worked as an electrical engineer. On 23 August 1924 he married Edith Holden in St Augustine's Church, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester. They later moved to Limerick. He and his eldest daughter were tragically drowned at Spanish Point, County Clare, on 9 June 1940.
Image sourced from Ancestry.com Public Member Trees - contributor Donald Birdthistle.