Corporal Joseph Maze Black
Joseph Maze Black was born on 22 December 1894 at Dundooan, Coleraine, County Londonderry, the third of six children of farmer John Henry Black and his wife Mary Maze McCausland Black (née Glenn). By the time of the 1911 Census he was living at Dundooan with his parents and his five brothers and working on the family farm.
Black enlisted in the North Irish Horse between 20 and 23 November 1915 (No.1939). He trained at the regiment's Antrim reserve camp before embarking for France in 1916 or the first half of 1917, where he was posted to one of the squadrons of the 1st or 2nd North Irish Horse Regiments.
In August-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 Royal Irish Fusiliers, an infantry regiment. Most, including Black, were transferred on 20 September and posted to the 9th (Service) Battalion – renamed the 9th (North Irish Horse) Battalion – joining it in the field at Ruyaulcourt five days later. Black was issued regimental number 41387 and posted to A Company.
He probably saw action with the battalion at the Battle of Cambrai in November and December 1917.
Black was one of the many posted as missing following the 9th (NIH) Battalion's fighting withdrawal from St Quentin from 21 to 28 March 1918 during the German spring offensive. It was later learned that he had been captured, unwounded, on 27 March at Erches, near Roye, when much of the battalion had been overwhelmed by the fast-moving German advance. He remained a prisoner until the end of the war, held at camps in Cassel and Münster in Germany.
Black's brother Harold Osborne Black also served in the war, in the 2nd Battalion, Wellington Regiment, New Zealand Expeditionary Force. He was killed in action on 29 March 1918.
Ballymoney Free Press, 11 April 1918
Doullens Communal Cemetery Extension No.1