Private William McKee
The only reference to this man's service in the North Irish Horse is in the Presbyterian Church in Ireland's Roll of Honour. He is recorded as Private William McKee, North Irish Horse, of Taylorstown, belonging to the Grange Congregation, Ahoghill Presbytery. On the assumption that this reference was correct, the following biography has been assembled.
William McKee was born on 19 August 1893 at Duneane, Toome, County Antrim, the second of nine children of blacksmith James McKee and his wife Agnes (née Blair). At the time of the 1911 Census he was living at Taylorstown with his parents and six of his seven surviving siblings, and working as a horse-shoer. On 28 December 1914 he married Annie Noble in the Trinity Parish Presbyterina Church, Ahoghill.
It is probable that he was the William McKee of Taylorstown referred to in the following report in the Ballymena Observer on 16 March 1917:
District-Inspector charged Wm. McKee, Taylorstown, with being an absentee under the Military Service Act. Complainant said he had received instructions from the Military Authorities in Glasgow to have the defendant brought before a magistrate. Defendant did not make any statement when arrested. Their worships remanded the accused in custody, pending the arrival of a military escort.
It can be surmised, therefore, that McKee was subsequently enlisted and posted to the North Irish Horse, spending the remainder of the war at the regiment's reserve depot at Antrim.
McKee died at Moss Cottage, Taylorstown, on 31 October 1962. He was buried in the Grange Presbyterian Church graveyard.
According to the Presbyterian Church in Ireland's Roll of Honour McKee's brother John also served in the war, as a private in the 11th Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles, and was wounded and gassed.
This page last updated 3 June 2025.