Private John Quee Graham
John Quee Graham was born on 5 October 1895 at 132 North Queen Street, Belfast, the fourth of five children of flesher Robert Graham and his wife Agnes (nee Quee). By the time of the 1911 Census he was living with his widowed mother and two siblings in North Queen Street and working as a flax rover.
Graham enlisted in the North Irish Horse between 13 and 19 May 1915 (No.1545 – later Corps of Hussars No.71433).
Whether he served overseas with the regiment is not known at present, but it appears probable. At one point his name appeared on a sick and wounded list, showing his regiment as the 1st North Irish Horse, which served in France and Belgium from 1916 to 1918.
In January 1918 Graham embarked for Egypt with a draft of North Irish Horsemen from the Antrim camp. There he was attached to the 1/1st Staffordshire Yeomanry (Queen's Own Royal Regiment). He served with the regiment in the Palestine campaign.
On 12 April 1919 he was demobilised and transferred to Class Z, Army Reserve.
On 25 August 1920 Graham married Edith Barton Brown at the Church of Ireland's Christ Church in Belfast. The couple emigrated to the USA in 1928.
The portrait of John Quee Graham, by well-known Irish artist Frank McKelvey, is on dispay at the North Irish Horse headquarters at Dunmore Park Camp, Belfast. The mounted image is provided courtesy of the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland (D.1977/16). Graham's New Testament sourced from an internet auction site.