Squadron Sergeant-Major Frederick Charles McMahon
This man is only identified as 'Sergeant McMahon' and 'Squadron Sergeant-Major McMahon' in two pre-war photographs. Newspaper articles describe him as 'Sergeant F. McMahon' from Warrenpoint. It is therefore probable that he was the Frederick Charles McMahon born on 14 September 1878 at Dromore, Warrenpoint, one of at least seven children of farmer Charles McMahon and his wife Essie Hart McMahon (née Bingham).
By the time of the 1911 Census McMahon was living at Dromore with his father, two siblings, and his wife Clarence Isabel (née McCracken), who he had married on 6 February that year at the Downshire Road Presbyterian Church, Newry. The couple had ten children over the next eighteen years.
McMahon joined the North Irish Horse on its formation in July 1908 (regimental number unknown), serving in the D (Dundalk) Squadron. He had also served in its predecessor, the North of Ireland Imperial Yeomanry, with the rank of lance corporal. By 1910 he had reached the rank of sergeant.
In January 1913, following the promotion of Thomas Aston to the post of regimental sergeant-major, McMahon was appointed as squadron sergeant-major of D Squadron.
It appears that McMahon resigned or was discharged from the regiment in mid-1914, and that he saw no further military service, returning to farming at Dromore.
He died on 20 February 1969 and was buried in the Clonallon Churchyard, Warrenpoint.
The above images, showing McMahon as squadron sergeant-major of D Squadron in June 1914 (top), and as a sergeant in 1912, can be seen in their full context here and here.