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Private Samuel Young

 

Samuel Young was born on 22 August 1884 at Belmont, Belfast, the third of six children of coachman James Young and his wife Agnes (née Brown). By the time of the 1911 Census he was living at 75 Donegall Avenue, Belfast, with his parents and two siblings and working as a van-man.

Young enlisted in the North Irish Horse on 3 November 1915 (regimental number unknown). Documents suggest that he understated his age by four or five years.

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. Young was issued regimental number 40672.

At some point in 1917 or 1918 Young sustained a severe cut to his right hand. Evacuated to the UK for treatment, on 8 July 1918 he was discharged, being no longer physically fit for military service due to the injury (paragraph 392 (xvi), King's Regulations).