Second Lieutenant William John Henry
William John Henry was born on 24 June 1894 at 10 Drew Street, Belfast, the second of five children of Scottish-born labourer (later tramway depot caretaker) Samuel Henry and his wife Ellen (née Jones). His mother died when he was just six years old. Educated at the Model and Technical schools in Belfast, by the time of the 1911 Census he was living at the tramway depot at 1a Lisburn Road with his father, step-mother, and three of his siblings, and working as a druggist's apprentice for the firm Thomas McMullan & Co in Victoria Street.
Henry enlisted in the North Irish Horse at Antrim on 26 May 1915 (No.1626 – later Corps of Hussars No.71477). He trained at the regiment's Antrim reserve camp before embarking for France on 11 January 1916 with E Squadron. In May 1916 E Squadron came together with A and D Squadrons to form the 1st North Irish Horse Regiment, serving as corps cavalry to VII, XIX, then V Corps until February-March 1918, when the regiment was dismounted and converted to a cyclist unit, serving as corps cyclists to V Corps until the end of the war.
Henry was made acting lance corporal on 17 June 1916. On 26 October that year he was severely reprimanded for 'neglect of duty whilst regimental orderly corporal'. He was promoted to corporal on 12 March 1917, lance sergeant three months later, and sergeant the following month.
On 19 March 1918 he applied for a commission in the infantry, with a preference for the Royal Irish Fusiliers. On 12 July he embarked for the UK, where he was posted to the No.7 Officer Cadet Battalion at Fermoy in Ireland. There he was assessed as having a 'fairly good' standard of education and a 'good' ability to train and command a platoon.
On 4 February 1919 Henry was ordered to proceed to a dispersal centre, "having completed a satisfactory course of instruction". He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant on 5 March 1919 and posted to the Royal Irish Fusiliers, but on the same day was demobilised.
After the war Henry returned to Belfast where, on 7 December 1925, he married Sarah Jane Saunderson. He died at his residence, 1 Lancefield Road, Belfast, on 23 July 1976 and was buried in the Roselawn Cemetery.