Service in Ireland

[Walter Stevens]

Firstly, I'm not from the UK and have only a limited knowledge of the entire Irish question, so apologies if I sound  as ignorant as I am!
My grandfather Walter Bolus was born in England in 1898 and returned there and applied to join the RFC but was turned down due to color blindness. He subsequently joined King Edward's Horse (Im not sure which Regiment or Squadron) as a 2nd Lt and was trained at The Curragh near Dublin. He eventually saw service in France but before that was posted to Ireland where he commanded a firing squad. The sequence of joining the regiment or qualifying as a 2nd Lt first is something I'm not certain of. Neither Regiment lists deployment to Ireland amongst its deployments. I'm aware of some strife with Ireland at the time (around 1916) but does anyone have any ideas about how I could find out more?

[iluleah]

Some info here http://kingedwardshorse.net/ and you will find more on https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/ including a great war forum which includes Q/A about King Edwards Horse in Dublin

[philipsearching]

There might be information in
http://lib.militaryarchive.co.uk/library/Cavalry-Yeomanry-Histories/History-King-Edwards-horse-Kings-OverseaDominionsReg.asp

It has a search option which, if you type in "bolus" shows a couple of entries.

Philip

[iluleah]

The Irish times ( in their culture tab) wrote a series of reports about the Easter Rising of 1916... this is the first one https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/easter-rising-day-1-rebels-on-the-streets-1.2575678 and RTE ( Irish TV) also has more on it https://www.rte.ie/centuryireland/index.php/articles/chronology-of-the-easter-rising

[Walter Stevens]

Thanks for this background it's most useful. Although my grandfather was raised Catholic and there is a sizable Irish strain to us, as an Anglophile he was shattered by the experience and the hatred of the Irish towards the English. He dropped his Catholic faith immediately. Ironically he was taken prisoner blindfolded and almost executed during another rebellion, this time by miners in Johannesburg in 1922!

[Christine53]

Officers' service records  are at National Archives. They have not been digitised so , as you may be unable to visit, you could ask for a quotation for making a copy. There is a non refundable fee of £8.40 to check the record and produce a quote. Here is a link to the entry for Walter Bolus :

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C1178150

( I think the cost may be quite high so brace yourself ! )

There is an entry in the London Gazette :

11 March 1918 WAr Office :

Special Reserve of Officers

The undermentioned from an Officer Cadet Unit to be 2nd Lts 23 Feb 1918

King Edward's Horse

Walter Bolus

[Walter Stevens]

Thanks for this. Sometimes I think commercialisation has gone too far  It feels pretty strange that in order for a British taxpayer to access the online military records of his ancestors, he is required to pay across to Ancestory!

[hallmark]

This is OCR

BOLUS, GiLLHAM, of Maldivia, Wynberg, Cape Colony, and of the City, and Civil Service
Clubs (C.T.), and the Rand Club, is eldest son of Walter Bolus, of Boiu-nemouth, Hants. He
was bom at Fort Elizabeth, Oct 11, 18G3, and was educated at King's Sch., Canterbury.
He married, July 23, 1889, Maud Constance, 4th dau. of Arthur Gates, J. P. for Cape Colony.

https://archive.org/stream/angloafricanwhos00will/angloafricanwhos00will_djvu.txt


Yours??

[Walter Stevens]

Yes he is thanks. He's an uncle of the Walter Bolus I'm referring to.