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Private Joseph Dodds

 

This North Irish Horseman was probably the Joseph Dodds born on 18 January 1896 in Partick, Glasgow, Scotland, the first of nine children of shipyard labourer William Dodds and his wife Jane (née Lindsay). In about 1899 the family moved to Belfast. By the time of the 1911 Census, Joseph was living at 25 Turin Street with his parents and six siblings, and working as an apprentice.

Dodds enlisted in the North Irish Horse between 22 and 26 August 1916 (No.2249).

He trained at the regiment's Antrim reserve camp until November 1916, when he and around 100 other North Irish Horsemen volunteered to transfer to the Royal Irish Rifles. The formal transfer took place on 7 December (Dodds was issued regimental number 40869), and on that day the men embarked for France. There they were posted to the 1st Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles, joining it on the Somme front on 12 December.

In mid-1917 Dodds was wounded, probably on 31 July, when the 1st Battalion took part in the attack on the Westhoek Ridge on the first day of Third Ypres (Passchendaele). Their casualties were severe - 36 officers and other ranks killed, 152 wounded and 18 missing – according to the battalion diary.

It is probable that the wound was severe enough to keep Dodds out of front-line service for the remainder of the war. In July 1918 he was transferred to the Labour Corps (No.604066). About a year later he was transferred to, or re-enlisted in, the Royal Engineers (No.315252).