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Private James Telford

 

The background of this North Irish Horseman is not certain, but he was probably the James Cowan Telford born on 2 January 1893 at 80 Upper Meenan Street, Belfast, the ninth of ten children of carpenter William Telford and his wife Sarah Jane (née McIlwaine). By the time of the 1911 Census he was living at 127 Manor Street, Belfast, with two of his brothers (his parents having died not long before), and working as a general labourer.

Telford enlisted in the North Irish Horse between 14 and 18 January 1916 (No.2080).

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. Telford was issued regimental number 40668.

Telford remained with the Inniskillings until the end of the war. On 18 February 1919 he was discharged, being no longer physically fit for military service (paragraph 392(xvi), King's Regulations), and granted a pension due to gastritis and the effects of appendicitis.

Soon after his discharge he was living with his brother Robert at 29 Liffey Street, Belfast.