Private Horace Kenneth Moyse
Horace Kenneth Moyse was born on 25 April 1886 at Windsor, Berkshire, the sixth of seven children of accountant and coal merchant Arthur Moyse and his wife Martha (née Yolland). his mother died when he was just five years old. By the time of the 1911 Census he was living at 6 Hayes Way, High Street, Bromley, Kent, where he was the head employee and shopwalker at a 'fancy drapery' business. By the outbreak of the war he had moved to Belfast, where he worked as a draper for the firm Sinclair & Co.
Moyse enlisted in the North Irish Horse at Belfast on 1 October 1914 (No.1236). On 2 June 1915 he embarked for France with a reinforcement draft for A, C and D Squadrons.
In May and June 1916 A, D and E Squadrons of the North Irish Horse combined to form the 1st North Irish Horse Regiment, and C and F Squadrons joined the 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons Service Squadron to form the 2nd North Irish Horse Regiment, each serving as corps cavalry units. In September 1917 the 2nd NIH Regiment was disbanded and its men, together with some surplus to the needs of the 1st NIH Regiment, were transferred to the infantry.
Moyse was among those transferred, though later than most, on 11 October 1917. He was issued regimental number 41625. Later that month, however, he suffered a double hernia "caused by jumping into a trench". Admitted to hospital at Rouen, he was found unfit for front line service, and on 22 November 1917 was transferred to the Labour Corps (No.443255). He was posted to No.831 Area Employment Company.
Moyse remained with the Labour Corps until 28 August 1918, when he was transferred to the 43rd (Garrison) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers (No. GS/106911) – recently formed in France for men rated medically unfit for front line duty. He was posted to No.35 Company.
On 14 February 1919 Moyse returned to England where (on 17 March) he was demobilised and transferred to Class Z, Army Reserve.
After initially living in London, he later returned to Belfast, where he worked as a civil servant. By 1963 he was living at 11 Graymount Terrace, Greencastle, Newtownabbey. He died on 10 December that year at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast.