Private Joseph Ernest Vize
Joseph Ernest Vize (or Vyse) was born on 4 October 1885 in Newtownstewart, County Tyrone, the second of six children of merchant (later commercial traveller) Joseph Vize and his wife Sarah Louisa (née Redmond). By the time of the 1901 Census he was living at 20 Farnham Street, Belfast, with his parents and his four surviving siblings and working as a clerk in a rent agent's office. Later that year his father died of influenza, and his sister Georgina in September 1904. In 1911 Joseph was living at 73 Delhi Street with his mother and three sisters and working as a sail-maker. His mother died the following year.
By 1914 Vize was living at 86 Fitzroy Street and working as a salesman. He married Florence Brown on 3 December that year in the Church of Ireland's Christ Church, Belfast. Their child, Blanche Elizabeth, was born on 28 September 1917.
Vize enlisted in the North Irish Horse between 4 and 6 November 1915 (No.1788). He trained at the regiment's Antrim reserve depot before embarking for France in 1916 or the first half of 1917, where he was posted to one of the squadrons of the 1st or 2nd North Irish Horse Regiments.
In September 1917 Vize was one of a small number of North Irish Horsemen who, being no longer physically fit for front-line service due to injury, age or illness, were transferred to the Labour Corps (No.388317). He remained with that regiment until the end of the war. On 11 April 1919 he was demobilised and transferred to Class Z, Army Reserve.
By 1924 Vize was living at 86 Fitzroy Avenue and working as a joiner. His wife Florence must have died, for on 22 May that year he married widow Emily Kelly (née McIlroy) in the Holywood Roman Catholic Church. He died in Belfast on 27 November 1953 and was buried in the City Cemetery, Glenalina Extension.
Image sourced from Ancestry.com Public Member Trees. Contributor 'des_vize'.