Private Samuel Long
Samuel Long was born on 26 March 1885 at Cookstown, County Tyrone, the second of five children of factory foreman John Long and his wife Lizzie (née Smith). He grew up in Cookstown, but by 1903 he was living at 11 Getty Street, Belfast. On 11 June that year he married Sarah Galway in St Paul's Roman Catholic Chapel, Belfast. The couple had seven children over the next sixteen years.
By the time of the 1911 Census he was living in Derryloran Town, Tullaghoge, County Tyrone, with his wife and three children, and working as a labourer.
Long enlisted in the North Irish Horse on 9 September 1914 (No.1190 – later Corps of Hussars No.71272). On 1 May 1915 he embarked for France with D Squadron, which at the time was serving as divisional cavalry to the 51st Division. On 30 October 1915 the Mid-Ulster Mail reported:
Lance-Corporal Samuel Long, of the North Irish Horse, arrived home to Church Street, Cookstown, on Saturday, after six months service in France. He has been in the trenches ever since he went out on 1st May, fourteen days at a time, and three days rest in billets. He has seen a lot of Cookstown men at the front, including some of the Ulster Division. He returned to France on Wednesday evening.
In May 1916 D Squadron came together with A and E Squadrons to form the 1st North Irish Horse Regiment, serving as corps cavalry to VII, XIX, then V Corps until February-March 1918, when the regiment was dismounted and converted to a cyclist unit, serving as corps cyclists to V Corps until the end of the war.
Long remained with the regiment throughout the war. On 26 February 1919 he was demobilised and transferred to Class Z, Army Reserve. He was granted a pension for an injury to his left ankle, which was attributed to his military service.
After the war Long returned to Cookstown, living at Church Street, then Mount Royal.
On 27 January 1965 a man named Samuel Long, retired labourer of Fairhill Road Cookstown, died at the Tyrone and Fermanagh Hospital, Omagh, aged 78.