Sergeant William Campbell Mainwaring
William Campbell Mainwaring was born on 5 March 1893 at Ballybride Lodge, Shankill, County Dublin, the second of four children of coachman (also caretaker) Abraham Henry Mainwaring and his wife Rachel (nee Carleton). By the time of the 1911 Census he was living at 3.1 Willow Place, Blackrock, Dublin, with his widowed mother and two surviving siblings, and working as a junior clerk in a draper's shop.
Mainwaring enlisted in the North Irish Horse between 24 November and 2 December 1915 (No.1997 – later Corps of Hussars No.71663). He embarked for France between 1916 and 1918, where he was posted to one of the squadrons of the 1st North Irish Horse Regiment.
The 1st NIH Regiment served as corps cavalry to VII, XIX then V Corps until February/March 1918, when it was dismounted and converted to a cyclist unit, serving as corps cyclists to V Corps for the remainder of the war.
Mainwaring was demobilised and transferred to Class Z, Army Reserve, on 20 July 1919.
By 1946 he was living at Donegall Pass, Belfast. On 23 July that year he collapsed in a city cafe and was pronounced dead on admission to the Royal Victoria Hospital.
Mainwaring's younger brother, Thomas Carleton Mainwaring, also served in the war, in the South Irish Horse and 7th (South Irish Horse) Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment. Wounded and captured during the German spring offensive of March 1918, he died on 6 April that year and was buried in the Le Cateau Military Cemetery.