Private John Meiklejohn
John Meiklejohn was born on 19 January 1895 at the Holles Street maternity hospital, Dublin, the second of two children of Scottish-born parents, plumber George Meiklejohn and his wife Harriet (née Saunders). By the time of the 1911 Census he was living at the Buckingham Buildings, Bella Street, Dublin, with his parents (his brother having died eight years before), and working as an apprentice plater in a shipyard.
Meiklejohn enlisted in the North Irish Horse at some point following the declaration of war in August 1914 (regimental number unknown).
At the end of December 1916 he was one of forty North Irish Horsemen who volunteered to transfer to the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. The formal transfer took place on 9 January 1917, and on the same day they embarked for France, where they were posted to the 10th Battalion, joining it at Ploegsteert Wood on the Ypres front on 16 January. Meiklejohn was issued regimental number 40653.
He remained with the Inniskillings until the end of the war. The War Office Daily Casualty List of 26 October 1918 reported that he had been wounded. This probably occurred in August or September 1918 during the Advance to Victory offensive.
After the war Meiklejohn unsuccessfully claimed a pension due to 'nervous debility' and 'gas'.