Private Henry James Loton
Henry James Loton was born on 9 May 1899 at 57 St Patrick's Road, North Dublin, the first of two children of bicycle salesman Henry John Loton and his wife Elizabeth Margaret (née Richardson). Soon after his birth the family moved to South Africa, where his sister Irene was born. His mother died at Cape Town at the end of 1903, and his father in Pretoria four years later. Henry returned to the UK in March 1908. At the time of the 1911 Census he was a pupil at the King's Hospital Boarding School in Blackhall Place, Dublin.
Loton enlisted in the North Irish Horse between 6 and 8 December 1915 (No.2022). He must have overstated his age, as he was only 16 at the time.
After training at the regiment's reserve depot at Antrim, at the end of 1916 he transferred to the Northamptonshire Yeomanry (No.2318 – later No.146215). At some point later in the war he served overseas, though when and where is not known at present.
After the war Loton lived in England. At the time of the 1939 Register he was living at 52 Claremont Road, Ealing, London, and working as a motor vehicle salesman. He died at Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, in the first months of 1957.