Private Sloan Edmund Bolton
Sloan Edmund Bolton was born on 23 January 1897 at Maghera, Magherafelt, County Londonderry, the sixth of eight children of grocer Robert Bolton and his wife Jemima (née Bolton). By the time of the 1911 Census he was living in Main Street, Maghera, with his parents and two of his four surviving siblings.
Bolton enlisted in the North Irish Horse between 2 and 15 September 1916 (No.2262 – later Corps of Hussars No.71726). He trained at the regiment's Antrim reserve camp before embarking for France in 1917. There 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.
In late October 1918 it was reported that Sloan was in hospital, having been wounded and gassed. He was demobilised and transferred to Class Z, Army Reserve, on 10 February 1919. The Ballymoney Free Press of 6 February reported that:
Trooper Sloan Bolton, North Irish Horse ... has been discharged. He was shell-shocked a few weeks prior to the signing of the armistice, and had been about two years on the Western front.
After the war Sloan returned to Maghera. He married May Canning on 30 December 1926. By 1943 he was living in Bank Square, Maghera, and working as a produce merchant and postmaster. He died at home on 14 December that year, and was buried in the Maghera Presbyterian Burying-ground.