Private David George Olley
David George Olley was born on 1 August 1900, the second of four children of shop assistant (leather) David George Olley and his wife Victoria Louisa (née Quigley). By the time of the 1911 Census he was living at 89 Nevis Avenue, Belfast, with his parents and siblings.
Olley enlisted in the North Irish Horse between 27 December 1916 and 4 January 1917 (No.2343 – later Corps of Hussars No.71761). He must have overstated his age, as he was only 16 at the time. He trained at the regiment's Antrim reserve camp before embarking for France in 1917 or 1918. There he was posted to one of the squadrons of the 1st North Irish Horse Regiment, which served as corps cavalry to VII, XIX, then V Corps until February-March 1918, when the regiment was dismounted and converted to a cyclist unit, serving as corps cyclists to V Corps until the end of the war.
On 17 October 1919 Olley was demobilised and transferred to Class Z, Army Reserve.
It is probable that he was the David George Olley who was later pastor of the Baptist Church in Newtownards, County Down, and who emigrated to Canada with his wife and two children in October 1949.