Rifleman D. W. Hussey
The background of this man is not known at present.
D. W. Hussey enlisted in the North Irish Horse around February 1916 (regimental number unknown).
He trained at the regiment's Antrim reserve camp until November 1916, when he and around 100 other North Irish Horsemen volunteered to transfer to the Royal Irish Rifles. The formal transfer took place on 7 December (Hussey was issued regimental number 40877), and on that day the men embarked for France. There they were posted to the 1st Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles, joining it on the Somme front on 12 December.
On 6 February 1917 Hussey was admitted to the No.2 General Hospital at Le Havre suffering from myalgia. He was discharged to duty eight days later. Hospital records state that he was aged 29 and of the Church of England faith.
Nothing more has been discovered about his military service.
Dudley (William) Hussey
It is possible that he may have been the Dudley de Vere Hawthorne (also known as William) Hussey born on 15 May 1887 at 22 Maryville Street, Belfast, the first of four children of detective (later district inspector) William Hawthorne Hussey and his wife Lizzie Jane (née Smith). At the time of the 1911 Census he was living at 1 Newry Road, Banbridge, County Down, with his parents and only surviving sibling, and was recorded as a student.
Later that year the family moved to Rathmullen, County Donegal, after Dudley's father was transferred there. On 22 May 1912 Dudley married Laura Adelaide Anderson in the Milford Presbyterian Church. The marriage records state that he was a veterinary surgeon and lived at Rathmullen. The birth record of their first child, however, states that he was a veterinary student.
In 1913 Dudley's father was transferred to Carrick-on-Shannon, County Leitrim. Dudley and Laura's second child was born there, in the Workhouse, Dudley shown as a coachman on the birth record.
Hussey enlisted on 19 May 1915, though with which regiment it is not clear. Records tell us that he served overseas with the 1st Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment (No.23238) and that around mid-1917 he transferred to the 4th (Queen's Own) Hussars (No.35935).
On 29 October 1917 he was discharged 'being no longer physically fit for war service (paragraph 392(xvi), King's Regulations), to due 'con[stitutional] insanity', which was attributed to his military service. He was awarded a pension, his level of disability assessed at 70 per cent in January 1920 (improving to 40% five months later).
By 1940 Hussey was living at 21 Rutland Street, Belfast. He died there on 2 June and was buried in the City Cemetery.
Hussey's son Albert Edward served in the Irish Guards in Egypt from 1933 to 1937, when he transferred to the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and went to India. He served in the Burma Campaign in World War 2, being captured and escaping from the Japanese. He was killed in action in the Netherlands on 23 September 1944 while serving with the King's Own Scottish Borderers. In reporting his death the Londonderry Sentinel noted that "His father, Mr. Dudley Hussey, served in the last war with the Fourth Hussars, and was wounded in France in 1916."
This page last updated 23 March 2024.