Sgt William Lockhart. Image courtesy of Olive Nelson and Phillip Tardiff
Sgt William (Willie) Lockhart was a neighbour of John Adams’s future father-in-law Isaac Reid, of Searce, Jerretspass, Co. Armagh. Willie was a long-standing member of the North Irish Horse, a yeomanry cavalry regiment attracting young men from the country who were used to being around horses.
He was called up with the NIH at the start of the war, and embarked for France in August 1914. In 1917 he was transferred to the 9th Royal Irish Fusiliers, when the 2nd North Irish Horse Regiment was dismounted and absorbed into that battalion. During this time he kept up correspondence with Mary (Minnie) Reid. She would later marry John Adams, and was our grandmother.
Willie Lockhart was captured at Erches on 27 March 1918 during the German Kaiserschlacht offensive, and spent the remainder of the war as a prisoner in Germany, in camps such as Kassel and Munster III.
You can read his letter to Isaac Reid from June 1918, and there are some photos and further information on Phillip Tardiff’s North Irish Horse site.
Willie returned to Co. Armagh after the war, and his granddaughter Olive Nelson left a nice comment on this site.
Prompted by Nick Metcalfe, I managed to find the POW records for Willie on the ICRC POW site, a fantastic resource.
Index card
Record from Cassel POW camp
Record from Munster III camp
