Private James Buller
James Buller (or Bulla) was born on 29 October 1895 at Lisnisky, Portadown, County Armagh, the first of three children of farmer (later labourer) Thomas Bulla and his wife Elizabeth (née McKee). His mother died when he was just eight years old. At the time of the 1911 Census he was living at Derrylileagh, Tartaraghan, County Armagh, where he worked as a servant on the farm of David and Eliza Graham. By 1915 he was living in Woodhouse Street, Portadown, and working as a labourer. On 26 November that year he married Sarah Jane Hegan at St Mark's Church of Ireland Parish Church, Portadown. The couple had two children over the next three years.
Buller enlisted in the North Irish Horse on 15 June 1917 (regimental number between 2466 and 2491). In August that year, however, he was transferred to the Labour Corps (No.309697).
On 22 December 1918 Buller was discharged, being 'no longer physically fit for war service' (paragraph 392 (xvi), King's Regulations). He was granted a pension due to 'VDH' (valvular disease of the heart), which was attributed to his military service, his level of disability assessed at 30 per cent in February 1920.