Private Maurice Victor Moore
Maurice Victor Moore was born on 26 July 1896 at Lancaster, Lancashire, one of at least seven children of soldier James Moore and his Barbados-born wife, obstetric nurse Wilhelmina Moore (née Daley). By the time of the 1911 Census he was living at 18 Woodland Road, Seaforth, Liverpool, with his widowed mother and four of his siblings. He later worked as an assistant grocer.
Moore enlisted in the Dragoons of the Line at Seaforth on 9 January 1915 (No.11341). Initially posted to the 2nd Dragoon Guards (Queen's Bays), on 6 May 1915 he was posted to the 2nd Reserve Regiment of Cavalry at Aldershot.
Moore embarked for France on 30 June 1916, having been attached to the headquarters establishment of the 2nd North Irish Horse Regiment following the formation of that regiment in France from C and F Squadrons and the 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons Service Squadron. The headquarters, formed in England and comprising 40 officers and men, joined the new regiment in France at the beginning of July.
The 2nd North Irish Horse Regiment served as corps cavalry to X Corps until August-September 1917, when the regiment was disbanded and its men were transferred to the Royal Irish Fusiliers, an infantry regiment. Moore was one of 70 men given the job of conducting the regiment's horses to Egypt, to be handed over for use by mounted units there. They embarked from Marseilles on board HMT Bohemian on 25 August. After a month at Alexandria they returned to France, via Italy. On 5 October 1917 they arrived at the 36th (Ulster) Division Infantry Base Depot at Harfleur for infantry training, and after just a few days were posted to the 9th (Service) Battalion, Royal Irish Fusiliers – which had been renamed the 9th (North Irish Horse) Battalion – joining it in the field at Ruyaulcourt on 12 October. Moore was issued regimental number 41620 and posted to D Company.
He probably saw action with the battalion at the Battle of Cambrai in November and December 1917 and probably also during the retreat from St Quentin from 21 to 28 March 1918.
Moore was wounded in the left hand – his index finger "blown away" – on 12 or 13 April 1918 during the fighting around Mount Kemmel on the Ypres front. Evacuated to the UK, he was treated at the Runcorn Vicarage Hospital and the 1st Western General Hospital in Liverpool until 3 July 1918, when he was posted to the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion, Royal Irish Fusiliers.
On 2 April 1919 Moore was discharged as 'surplus to military requirements, having suffered impairment since entry into the service' (paragraph 392 xvi(a), King's Regulations). His military character was recorded as 'very good'.
At the time of the 1939 Register Moore was living with his wife Gladys at 1 Old Farm Road, Great Crosby, Liverpool, and working for the insurance revenue department as a tax officer. He died there on 1 September 1982.