Private Harold Joseph Keating
Harold Joseph Keating was born on 5 October 1899 at Enfield Lock, Middlesex, the third of four children of Irish-born water bailiff and former police constable Francis Joseph Keating and his wife Ada Mary (née Norris). By the time of the 1911 Census he was living at 42 Sutherland Road, Tottenham, with his parents and two surviving siblings.
Keating was attested into the army on 4 November 1917. Called-up a month later, he was posted to the 9th (County of London) Battalion (Queen Victoria's Rifles) (No.394946). On 29 March 1918 he was transferred to the 2/1 London Yeomanry (Corps of Lancers No.14007).
On 12 September 1918 Keating and 55 other men of the regiment were compulsorily transferred to the Corps of Hussars (No.81236) and posted to the 1st North Irish Horse Regiment, which was then serving in France as corps cyclist regiment to V Corps. They embarked at Folkestone for Boulogne that day, joining the regiment in the field on 18 September, where they were assigned to A, D and E Squadrons, joining in the fighting during the Advance to Victory offensive in the final weeks of the war.
On 7 June 1919, with around twenty other North Irish Horsemen, Keating was transferred to the Army Cyclist Corps (No.23910) and posted to IV Corps Cyclist Regiment, part of the Army of Occupation based in Rolsdorf, Germany. He returned to the UK on 20 September and was demobilised and transferred to Class Z, Army Reserve, on 4 December 1919.
At the time of the 1939 Register Keating was living at 91 Crescent Road, Haringey, Wood Green, Middlesex, and working as a brewer's traveller. He died at his home, 22 Station Road, London N22, on 16 August 1970.
This page last updated 1 January 2023.