Sergeant Alexander Robert Davison Wetherall
Alexander Robert Davison Wetherall was born at Ballincollig, County Cork, on 21 September 1886, the first of six children of 21st Hussars cavalryman Alexander Wetherall and his wife Mary Davison Wetherall (née Hanna). He spent the early years of his life with his family in Bangalore, India, then in England and Wales, as his father moved with his regiment. On his retirement in 1901 his father was a squadron sergeant major on the permanent staff of the Monmouthshire Yeomanry.
Wetherall married Mary Ashe Wright at Willowfield Church in Belfast on 15 June 1910. By 1911 they were living at 41 Greenville Road, Bloomfield, Belfast, he working as a post office clerk.
Wetherall enlisted on the North Irish Horse between 17 January and 11 February 1911 (No.572 – later Corps of Hussars No.71040). He embarked for France on 20 August 1914 with C Squadron, seeing action on the retreat from Mons and advance to the Aisne. C Squadron then served as corps headquarters cavalry until April 1915, when it was attached as divisional cavalry to the 3rd Division. In June 1916 it joined with F Squadron and the 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons Service Squadron to form the 2nd North Irish Horse Regiment, attached as corps cavalry to X Corps until September 1917, when the regiment was disbanded and its men transferred to the infantry.
It is probable that at some point prior to September 1917 Wetherall returned to the North Irish Horse reserve base at Antrim, as he was not among those transferred to the infantry. He remained with the regiment until the end of the war, rising to the rank of acting sergeant. On 17 March 1919 he was transferred to Class Z, Army Reserve.
In January 1921 Wetherall and his wife emigrated to the United States to join his family. Their first child, Kenneth Wright Wetherall, was born in Chicago on 23 December that year.
Wetherall died in Chicago on 27 December 1950 and was buried in Graceland Cemetery. He is remembered on a tablet in the Willowfield Parish Church, Belfast, commemorating those of the Willowfield Sunday Schools who served in the war (below).
Image courtesy of Nigel Henderson, Researcher at History Hub Ulster.
This page last updated 22 September 2024.