Warrant Officer William Clements Loughran
William Clements Loughran was born on 30 September 1892 at 13 Old Park Avenue, Belfast, the only child of yarn winder and storeman Robert Henry Loughran and his wife Margaret Jane (nee Clements). His mother died of tuberculosis when he was just two years old. By the time of the 1911 Census he was living with his father and step-mother at 1 Bell's Street, Whitehouse, Belfast, and working as a hardware apprentice for the firm Potts and Houston in North Street.
Loughran enlisted in the North Irish Horse at Belfast on 25 August 1914 (No.1036 – later Corps of Hussars No.71207). He embarked for France with D Squadron on 1 May 1915. He served with the regiment throughout the war, rising to the rank of warrant officer Class 2.
During 1918 Loughran applied for a commission, embarking for the UK around August for officer cadet training. He did not complete the training, however, probably due to the ending of the war that November. On 19 March 1919 Loughran was discharged as being no longer physically fit for war service, being surplus to military requirements (having suffered impairment since entry into the service) – Paragraph 392 xvi(a), King's Regulations. This may have been as a result of an eye injury, for which he received an army pension for a little over a year.
After the war Loughran worked as a commercial traveller. On 6 March 1920 he married Evelyn Rees in Belfast. He died on 1 April 1971.
Image from the Belfast Evening Telegraph, kindly provided by Nigel Henderson, Researcher at History Hub Ulster (www.greatwarbelfastclippings.com).