Lance Corporal Edwin Sinton
Number: 34517
Company: 99th (Irish) Company, 8th Battalion, Second Contingent
ENLISTMENT
Date: 5 March 1901
Place: Belfast
Age: 20 years stated on enlistment. (Born 1 December 1882 at Bessbrook, Newry, County Armagh.)
Trade or calling: Draper/ Warehouseman
Place of birth: In the Parish of Killeavey, in or near the Town of Newry, in the County of Armagh
Family: Single. Father Samuel Sinton, retired baker, mother Eliza Sinton (nee Wright), of 41 Rosemount Gardens, Belfast.
Previous military service: No
Description: Height 5' 11 1/4". Complexion fresh, eyes light blue, hair light brown. Mole back of neck.
Religion: Wesleyan
ACTIVE SERVICE
Date to South Africa: 13 April 1901
Date home: 26 June 1902
Service medal, clasps and other awards: Queen's South Africa Medal. Cape Colony, 1901, 1902 clasps.
DISCHARGE
Date: 9 August 1902
Place: Shorncliffe
Reason for discharge: At his own request
Intended place of residence: 6 Camberwell Terrace, Antrim Road, Belfast
Conduct: Good
Special qualifications: Warehouseman
Sinton was one of a small number of men of the 99th and 74th Companies brought home in June 1902 for the Coronation of Edward VII.
On 26 November 1914 the Newry Reporter described his time in the Yeomanry and in subsequent years::
He served with the I.Y. in South Africa, and saw a good deal of fighting with Colonel Crabbe and Colonel Bethune in Cape Colony. He was one of the five men selected to represent his squadron at the late King Edward's funeral, and for a considerable time after he returned to Africa he held an important appointment in the Cape Government railways. He subsequently joined the Cape Mounted Police and served in British Bechuanaland, Vryburg, Taungs, and Mafeking districts, and also in the most northerly station in the Kalaharia desert with the camel corps. When the construction of the Cape to Cairo railway was begun he left the police and had a varied experience on the line. On returning to Belfast a few years ago to recruit his health after an attack of malarial fever, he decided to enter the cinematographic business, and took up the management of the Shankill Picturedrome. Later on he became manager of the Picture House, Royal Avenue.
Sinton enlisted in the North Irish Horse at the beginning of World War 1 and was soon after commissioned in the Royal Artillery, rising to the rank of Captain. Awarded a Military Cross in 1918, he was killed in action on 21 August that year. Further details can be seen here.
Image from the Belfast Evening Telegraph, 23 May 1902.
This page last updated 9 March 2026.