Sergeant Samuel John Armstrong
Samuel John Armstrong was born on 13 April 1877 at Teehill, Clones, County Monaghan, son of labourer William Armstrong and his wife Anne (née Beatty). By the time of the 1901 Census he was living as a boarder at Cherryville, Belfast, and working as a grocer's shopman. He was later employed as a gas meter inspector. On 8 April 1907 he married Margaret Ann Reilly in St Mark's Church of Ireland Parish Church, Dundela, County Down. The couple had two children over the next six years. By the time of the 1911 Census they were living at 77 Palestine Street, Belfast.
Armstrong enlisted in the North Irish Horse between 2 and 4 November 1915 (No.1780 – later Corps of Hussars No.71555). He trained at the regiment's Antrim reserve camp before embarking for France sometime between 1916 and 1918, where he was posted to one of the squadrons of the 1st North Irish Horse Regiment. This regiment served as corps cavalry to VII, XIX, then V Corps from its establishment in May 1916 until February-March 1918, when it was dismounted and converted to a cyclist unit, serving as corps cyclists to V Corps until the end of the war.
Armstrong remained with the regiment throughout the war. On 30 January 1919 he was demobilised and transferred to Class Z, Army Reserve. He was granted a pension as a result of rheumatism, his level of disability assessed at 20 per cent in September 1920.
After the war Armstrong lived at 77 Palestine Street and resumed work as a meter inspector.