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Corporal Samuel Gribben

 

Samuel Gribben was born on 2 February 1879 at Drumnadrough, Belfast, the first of four children of tenter John Gribben and his wife Mary Ann (née O'Neill). The family lived for some time at Lisburn before returning to Belfast. On 18 September 1900 Samuel married Mary Jane Newport in St Mary's Church of Ireland Parish Church. The couple had two children over the next two years.

By the time of the 1911 Census, Samuel was living at 68 Paris Street, Shankill, with his family, his mother and a cousin, and working as a marine engineer.

Gribben enlisted in the North Irish Horse on 1 September 1914 (No.1073). Soon after, however, he fell ill with rheumatism, and on 25 March 1915 he was discharged, being 'not likely to become an efficient soldier' (paragraph 392 (iii)(c), King's Regulations).

He was later granted a pension, his illness being attributed to his military service.