This is the story of my maternal 1st cousin 2x removed, William McCabe (1885-1959), a man whose life took him from Ireland to industrial Scotland, to the battlefields of the First World War, and finally across the world to North Queensland.
Our common ancestors are: Patrick Muckian and Sarah McCann, my maternal 2x great grandparents.
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| William McCabe (photo cropped from family group photo shared by my maternal 3rd cousin Trevor White) |
William was a soldier, labourer, husband, father and migrant. Like so many of our ancestors, he lived through extraordinary events while trying to provide an ordinary life for his family. Over time, I have slowly pieced together some of his story from birth and marriage certificates, census records, military documents, newspapers and a precious family photograph.
What has particularly fascinated me is discovering that William's military service began long before the First World War. His surviving records (which have taken several years to uncover) reveal a military career of around fifteen years that was considerably more complicated than I originally realised.
As so often happens in family history, each discovery has answered some questions while raising others.
Beginnings In Dundalk, Ireland
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| 1885 Birth Record Source: Ireland, Civil Registration Births Index, 1864-1958 |
William McCabe was born on the 11th of May 1885. He was the only son of Patrick McCabe, a tailor, and Mary, formerly Muckian. William was the middle child in the family, growing up alongside his sisters Anne and Mary Jane.
His birth registration places the family in Chapel Lane, Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland. His father's occupation - tailor - is only a small detail on paper, yet it evokes so much - a working household in late nineteenth-century Ireland, where earning a living required skill, patience and long hours of labour.
At some point during William’s early childhood, the family moved about thirteen miles north to Newry, a town straddling the boundary between Counties Armagh and Down. It was the first of several changes of place that would mark William’s life, although at the time it would simply have meant that home had shifted from one town to another.
Growing Up In Newry, Ireland
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| 1901 Census of Ireland Source: Census of Ireland 1901/1911. The National Archives of Ireland. |
By the time of the 1901 Census of Ireland,
William was living in the South Ward of Newry, in County Armagh, with his
parents and sisters. The household consisted of Patrick and Mary McCabe, both aged 45, their daughters Anne, aged 18, and Mary Jane, aged 14, and William, aged 16.
His father Patrick was still working as a tailor, while his mother Mary and his two sisters were employed in the textile industry, working as flax spinners. William's own occupation is more difficult to decipher. It appears to say rover / cashier, although the handwriting is not entirely clear.
A rover worked with machinery used in preparing textile fibres before spinning, work that would have fitted into the busy linen industry of the Newry district. The reference to cashier is less certain, and I have wondered whether William also helped with his father’s tailoring business, collecting payments from customers. Whatever the precise nature of his work, William was already part of the working world at sixteen, contributing alongside all the other members of the household.
The “House and Building Return” section of the 1901 census adds another layer to the family’s circumstances. The McCabes lived at No. 5 Moore's Lane, in a one-room dwelling classified as a third-class house, with a slate, iron, or tile roof and one front window. Five people shared that small space. It is difficult to imagine the practicalities of everyday life in such cramped surroundings, particularly when several family members were working long hours. Yet these were the circumstances in which William spent his teenage years.
A Young Man Joins The British Army
On the 5th of April 1904, William enlisted in the Royal Irish Fusiliers at Newry. He was eighteen years old, just a few weeks short of his nineteenth birthday. He was assigned the regimental number 8384.
The Royal Irish Fusiliers, officially known at the time as Princess Victoria's Royal Irish Fusiliers, but affectionately known as The Faughs, was one of the established infantry regiments of the British Army. For a young man from a working-class Irish family, the Army may have seemed an attractive option as it offered regular employment, accommodation and opportunities beyond those available in the local factories.
Whether these were William's reasons for joining, I cannot say. What I do know is that he enlisted ten years before the outbreak of the First World War, and his decision would eventually have profound consequences for both himself and his family.
Understanding William's Pre-WW1 Military Service
Although I have not yet located William's original attestation papers confirming his individual enlistment terms, William's discharge certificate helps explain the beginnings of his military life.
When William enlisted in early 1904, the British Army had introduced revised short-service enlistment arrangements under Army Order 117 of 1902. These allowed soldiers to serve three years with the Colours, followed by nine years in the Army Reserve. The arrangement provided a substantial reserve of trained soldiers who could be recalled in the event of war.
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| William McCabe's Discharge Certificate dated 1920 Source: Family Document collection (shared by my maternal 3rd cousin Bill White) |
The discharge certificate records two periods of service for William:
- 7 years and 288 days with the Colours, including his original regular service and subsequent wartime service.
- 7 years and 124 days in Section B of the Army Reserve, consistent with a period of reserve service following his initial three years in the Army.
These figures have helped me to make sense of what was otherwise a rather confusing military timeline.
His Early Years As A Regular Soldier
After enlisting in April 1904, William would have undergone basic military training, most likely at the Royal Irish Fusiliers' regimental depot at Gough Barracks in Armagh. There, recruits learned military drill, rifle handling, markmanship, physical conditioning and the many routines of Army life.
William's early service appears consistent with a posting to the 1st Battalion, which was stationed at home garrisons during this period. Although I have not found an individual service record confirming every posting or movement, he would have become familiar with the discipline and daily routine of a regular infantry soldier.
Around April 1907, he then transferred to Section B of the Army Reserve. For William, this meant a return to civilian life, but not a complete separation from the Army.
As a reservist, he could find employment, marry and establish a home, while remaining liable to be recalled for military service if required. Reservists generally received a small payment, typically 4 pence to 6 pence a day, for remaining available. They were expected to keep the military authorities informed of their whereabouts and meet any applicable training obligations, including attending mandatory annual training camps which would have lasted for 12 to 14 days.
At that stage, William could have had little idea of how dramatically his reserve commitment would affect his future.
Marriage to Elizabeth Rocks
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| 1910 Marriage Record Source: Ireland, Civil Registration Marriages Index, 1845-1958 |
On the 4th of January 1910, William, aged 24, married Elizabeth Rocks, aged 21, at the Catholic Cathedral in Newry, County Down. On the marriage record, William’s occupation was given as labourer and his address recorded as Castle Street, Newry.
Elizabeth, affectionately known as Lizzie, would share William's life through relocation, the separation and uncertainty of war, family sorrow, and eventually a new beginning on the other side of the world.
Early family life in Scotland
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| 1911 Scotland Census Source: National Records of Scotland 1911 Census 652/29/21 p.21 of 20 |
By the time of the 1911 Scotland Census, William and Lizzie had moved to Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, Scotland. William was recorded as a labourer employed in the tube works, possibly the Central Tube Works which was just a street away. This census record places the young couple firmly in the industrial world of early twentieth-century Scotland, where work was heavy, conditions were hard, and daily life was shaped by the rhythm of the factories.
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| 1913 Map of Coatbridge, Lanarkshire Source: Ordnance Survey 1892-1949, Lanarkshire VII.12, National Library of Scotland |
Their address was Kirk Street, surrounded by railway lines, tram lines, various iron works, electric light works, rivet, bolt and nut works, boiler works and other industrial sites.
They were living in a tenement property south of Dundyvan Church, in
the part of Coatbridge known as the “Slap Up” — a name that says much about the
hastily and poorly built housing erected for Irish immigrant families around
1900.
The timing of that census gives it special
poignancy. Only a few days later, on 7 April 1911, Lizzie gave birth to their first daughter, Mary
Elizabeth McCabe. The census therefore captures William
and Lizzie at the very beginning of family life, making a home together far from
Newry.
Other records from 1911 and 1912 continue the picture. William was described as a “Stag Hill Labourer” on Mary Elizabeth's birth record, and the
family address was listed as Kirk Street in Coatbridge. When their second daughter, Ann, was born in
1912, William's occupation was listed as "Tube Work Labourer" and the family was still living on Kirk Street. These were clearly years of hard work and young family life — years in
which William and Lizzie were doing what so many couples did: making a home as
best they could, wherever work could be found.
William remained an active reservist during his time in Scotland. When he moved to Scotland, his administration remained under the Royal Irish Fusiliers, but his annual training would have been coordinated locally through a designated Scottish Command depot, likely in the Lanarkshire area.
Although William had returned to civilian employment in early 1907, his earlier years in the Army would become enormously significant before his reserve commitment had ended. Neither he nor Lizzie could have known how dramatically their lives were about to change.
Remembered In Coatbridge, Scotland
An interesting recent discovery has provided another connection between William and his years in Scotland.
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| Extract from "Coatbridge and The Great War" by Rev. Samuel Lindsay first printed in 1919 |
In 1919, the Reverend Samuel Lindsay compiled a publication entitled 'Coatbridge and The Great War', recording local men who had served during the conflict. On page 232, in the section devoted to the Royal Irish Fusiliers, William is listed:
McCabe, William, Pte. - 2 Lock Street - 8384.
The regimental number confirms that this is the same William McCabe whose military records I have been researching. The address differs from the family's earlier Kirk Street address, suggesting that they may have moved within Coatbridge, although I have no record establishing when.
I find it particularly satisfying that William's name was preserved in a publication commemorating the men of Coatbridge. Born in Ireland and employed in Scotland, he had become part of the community whose contribution to the war was remembered in this book.
The First World War Begins
When Britain entered the First World War in August 1914, William was 29 years old, a husband and the father of two young daughters. He was also a trained Army reservist, liable for immediate recall.
Lizzie, then seven months pregnant, returned home to Newry in Ireland, with their two little girls, while William returned to military service with the Royal Irish Fusiliers. It must have been an anxious and unsettling time for the young family. William was preparing to go to war, while Lizzie faced the birth of their third child without knowing when she might see her husband again.
Why William's Military Record Trail Is Incomplete
Unfortunately, I have not located a complete First World War service file for William, so there are gap in our understanding of his movements during the war.
This is not unusual. Many British soldiers' First World War service records were destroyed or damaged during the Second World War.
The surviving collections held by the National Archives at Kew in England include the WO 363 “burnt documents” and WO 364 pension records, both representing only part of the original records. Hospital records survive in more limited form in the MH 106 collection.
For William, I have had to piece together his story from smaller surviving fragments — his medal index card, nominal index entry, his British War Medal and Victory Medal roll, his pension ledger record, discharge certificate, newspaper reports and civilian records such as family birth certificates.
Fortunately, those fragments have revealed more than I initially expected.
Called Back To Service
William's military records establish that he had entered an overseas theatre of war by the 22nd of August 1914, only weeks after Britain entered the conflict.
This explains why, just two months later, William was described not only as a labourer but also as a Private in the Royal Irish Fusiliers Reserve on the 1914 birth certificate of his son William Joseph.
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| 1914 Birth Record - son William Joseph McCabe Source: Ireland, Civil Registration Births Index, 1864-1958 |
William's medal index card provides an important clue to those early movements.
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| UK WW1 British Army Medal Roll Index Cards 1914-1920 Source: The National Archives, Kew, England |
The card shows that William was entitled to the British War Medal and Victory Medal, as well as the 1914 Star. That is an important detail, because the 1914 Star was awarded only to qualifying servicemen who served in France or Belgium between the 5th of August and the 22nd of November in 1914.
William’s qualifying date is given as 22 August 1914, placing him overseas in the opening weeks of the war. This is a particularly significant discovery. As a Section B reservist, William would have been mobilised and required to rejoin his regiment. He probably travelled from Scotland back to the regimental depot in Armagh before joining the soldiers assembling for overseas service.
The 1st Battalion of the Royal Irish Fusiliers was part of the 10th Brigad, 4th Division, which crossed to France in August 1914. Its early service included the Battle of Le Cateau on the 26th of August and the subsequent fighting along the River Aisne.
Although William's individual movements during these first weeks are not fully documented, his medal record places him in the overseas campaign at an extraordinarily early stage. Only a short time later, however, his military service took an unexpected turn.
“Now in hospital in England”
One of the most revealing pieces of evidence about William's early wartime experiences came not from an Army record, but from the birth certificate of his first son.
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| 1914 Birth Record - son William Joseph McCabe Source: Ireland, Civil Registration Births Index, 1864-1958 |
When William Joseph McCabe (Jnr.) was born in Newry on the 26th of October 1914, his father was absent. The birth was registered on the 10th of November, and beside William's details was the poignant note - “now in hospital in England”.
It is such a small entry, but it opens another window into the family's experience of war. William had gone overseas in August, yet by the time his son was born, he was in a hospital somewhere in England.
For some time, I could find nothing to explain why. Then a newspaper discovery brought the story into much clearer focus.
Illness On The Western Front
One of my most exciting recent discoveries came from a newspaper published in Sheffield, England.
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| Sheffield Evening Telegraph, October 15 1914. |
The Sheffield Evening Telegraph, dated October 15 1914, reported the arrival of a contingent of sick and wounded British soldiers at a Sheffield hospital two days earlier, on the 13th of October. The men had been evacuated from the fighting along the Aisne in France.
Among those named was Private William McCabe, Royal Irish Fusiliers, number 8384. Significantly, William was listed as "sick" rather than wounded.
Until finding this article, I had only known that William had been hospitalised in England during the autumn of 1914. Now I could place him among a group of soldiers evacuated from the Aisne, less than eight weeks after arriving in France.
By September 1914, fighting along the Aisne had developed into the beginnings of the trench warfare that would come to characterise the Western Front. The men endured exhausting military operations, wet and uncomfortable conditions, and prolonged periods with little opportunity for proper rest. It seems quite possible that William became ill while serving in the Aisne trenches during September, although the newspaper does not identify his illness or establish precisely when he left his unit.
What the article does confirm is that he had reached Sheffield by the 13th of October 1914. Meanwhile, events were unfolding at home. On the 26th of October, Lizzie gave birth to their third child and first son, William Joseph. When the birth was registered on the 10th of November, William was still described as being in hospital in England. Taken together, these records suggest that his hospitalisation extended over several weeks.
I cannot help but wonder whether William had received news of his son's birth by then, or how much Lizzie knew about her husband's condition. There is another sobering aspect to this discovery.
William's original battalion suffered devastating casualties during the fighting around Armentiere and the First Battle of Ypres in October and November 1914. While many of his fellow soldiers were still fighting on the Western Front, William was recovering in England. His illness had taken him away from the battlefield during one of the most destructive periods in the battalion's early wartime history.
A Brief Return Home During Wartime
One of the most treasured items in my collection is a family photograph taken in approximately early 1915.
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| McCabe Family Portrait 1915 (shared & dated by my maternal 3rd cousin Trevor White) Elizabeth McCabe nee Rocks is seated on the left holding baby William Joseph. William McCabe is seated on the right with the two eldest children, younger daughter Annie in the middle & older daughter Mary Elizabeth on William's lap. |
This is my only photo of William with his young family. He is sitting beside Lizzie, his wife, with their two little girls and baby William Joseph, who appears to be only a few months old. I find this photograph particularly precious because it captures a brief interval when the family was together again.
Perhaps William had been granted leave following his stay in hospital or perhaps he was home, recovering before being sent back to duty. Whatever the exact circumstances, the photograph preserves a moment of reunion in the middle of uncertainty.
It is not hard to imagine what that return must have meant - the relief of seeing Lizzie again, the comfort of home, the joy of holding his children, especially his new born son and, behind it all, the knowledge that the peace of that moment might not last.
When William eventually returned to military duty, another separation lay ahead for the family. Sadly, the little baby in that photo did not survive much longer. William Joseph McCabe (Jnr.) died in Newry on the 10th of March 1916, before reaching eighteen months of age.
It is impossible not to feel the weight of that loss. Lizzie had already endured the fear and uncertainty of her husband's absence. Then, in the middle of the war, she and William also lost their infant son. I cannot help but wonder how long it took for William to learn of that heartbreaking loss.
Following William Through The War
Another military discovery has helped expand my understanding of William's wartime service.
- 1st Battalion
- 6th Battalion
- 2nd Battalion
The battalions are recorded in sequence, noting that William first served with the 1st Battalion, followed by the 6th and finally the 2nd. Unfortunately, the roll does not provide the dates of his transfers or indicate how long he spent with each unit. This makes it difficult to establish precisely where William served after his hospitalisation in 1914.
It's likely he was transferred to the 6th Battalion once he had returned to service in 1915 as those soldiers sent home to convalesce were usually stripped of their original battalion's active roster. The British Army would then cross-post the experienced, recovered veterans to where they were needed the most.
The 6th Battalion was part of Kitchener's New Army and had an eventful wartime history. It served in the harsh, sun-baked terrain of Gallipoli (Suvla Bay) in 1915, before moving to Salonika (Macedonia) to fight the Bulgarians later that year. William's medal roll confirms that he served with the 6th Battalion, but without a transfer date I cannot say whether he personally took part in either campaign. He may have joined the battalion after those operations.
On the 2nd of November 1916, the 6th Battalion amalgamated with the 5th Battalion to form the 5th/6th Battalion which subsequently served in Palestine before returning to France in 1918. Whether William transferred to the 2nd Battalion before or after that amalgamation remains another unanswered question.
The 2nd Battalion also had a varied wartime history. It arrived on the Western Front in December 1914, moved to Salonika in November 1915 and later served in Palestine in October 1917. This is particularly significant because William's obituary, published in 1959, stated that he had served in Palestine during the First World War. His confirmed association with battalions that served there lends support to that family account, although his exact dates and places of service remain uncertain.
It is frustrating not to be able to trace every step of William's wartime journey, but the surviving records have certainly revealed a much wider military experience than I originally imagined.
A Memory Of France
One of the most intriguing pieces of evidence about William's wartime experiences comes from a newspaper article published more than twenty years after the war.
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| 1939 Newspaper Item - Speech by William Townsville Daily Bulletin Fri 30 Jun 1939 p5 |
In June 1939, William was reported as speaking about the Home Hill Militia and its association with the Australian 31st Battalion. During his remarks, he recalled seeing men of the battalion "go over the top" in France.
This brief statement is particularly interesting because it appears to preserve something William himself remembered about the war. The Australian 31st Battalion served on the Western Front between 1916 and 1918. William's recollection suggests that he was close enough to witness Australian soldiers going into action, although I have not established when or where this occurred.
I find it fascinating that, more than twenty years after the fighting ended, William could still recall watching Australian soldiers advance into battle. It is another small glimpse of the experiences he carried with him long after leaving the Army.
The End of William's Military Service
The Armistice on the 11th of November 1918 brought an end to the fighting on the Western Front, but William's connection with the Army appears to have continued beyond that date.
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| UK WW1 Pension Ledgers & Index Cards 1914-1923 - card 1 Source: Forces War Records |
A pension index card records 22 April 1919 as his discharge date.
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| Military Discharge Certificate Source: British Army Certificate of Discharge, Army Form B. 108D. |
His discharge certificate contains a later discharge entry, together with a handwritten reference to Section D of the Army Reserve and a new Army number, apparently 7042620.
The precise relationship between these entries remains uncertain, particularly as the surviving certificate appears to have been prepared or reissued some years after the war. It is another example of how one document can answer a question while introducing several more.
A Disability Pension
William's pension records reveal that he was assessed as having a disability of "less than 20 per cent" following his military service.
One entry records a weekly payment of five shillings and sixpence, beginning on the 16th of September 1919. The record also contains references to an appeal, subsequent payments and allowances for dependent children.
Unfortunately, the available documents do not identify the medical condition for which William received compensation. I therefore cannot establish whether his disability was connected with the illness that led to his evacuation from France in October 1914. Nevertheless, the pension records provide another reminder that the consequences of military service did not necessarily end when the fighting stopped.
Returning To Family Life In Newry
After the war, William was again associated with 10 Thomas Street, Newry, an address recorded in his pension documents and Newry's Roll of Honour.
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| Newry's Roll Of Honour |
For William and Lizzie, the return to ordinary family life must have been accompanied by mixed emotions. They had lost their little son William Joseph in 1916, and in March 1919 William's mother, Mary McCabe (nee Muckian), died in Newry.
Yet life continued, and the family grew. James Gerard was born in 1920, Patrick Dermott in 1921, Kathleen Ameldia in 1923, and William Raymond in 1926.
After the upheaval of war, these were years of rebuilding family life, raising children and looking towards the future. Before long, another major change lay ahead.
Leaving Ireland behind
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| 1928 UK & Ireland Outward Passenger Lists Source: The National Archives, Kew, England - UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960 |
In 1928, less than a decade after the war ended, William and Elizabeth made the life-changing decision to leave Ireland for Australia.
The outward passenger list records them departing England on 21 July 1928 aboard the Orama, with William described once again as a labourer. Their last address was recorded as 10 Thomas Street, Newry, the same address that had appeared on records during the war years. Travelling with William and Lizzie were their six children.
That detail matters. This was not the journey of a single young man leaving home in search of adventure. It was a whole family setting out together, carrying with them all the hope, uncertainty, risk, and determination that migration required.
William and Lizzie were leaving behind the country in which they had been born, relatives, familiar streets and places that held both happy and painful memories. By the time they arrived in Queensland thirty-five days later, on the 3rd of September 1928, they had crossed not only oceans, but from one chapter of their lives into another.
A New Life In Queensland, Australia
William’s uncle, Owen McCane (Muckian) — my great-grandfather — sponsored the family and paid for William, Elizabeth, and their children to emigrate.
After arriving in Brisbane, the McCabe family
travelled north to Owen McCane’s farm near Gumlu in North Queensland. They
stayed there for a short while before settling in the nearby Home Hill
district.
It was here that William entered a very
different working world. Far from the streets of Dundalk and Newry, and far
from the tube works of Coatbridge, he became part of life in North Queensland.
By the 1940s he was working at Inkerman Mill, one of the mills that helped
shape the sugar industry of the Burdekin.
There is something remarkable about the journey his life had taken: born into an Irish tailoring household, employed in the industrial heart of Scotland, called to military service and sent to war, he had now found himself in the cane-growing district of Queensland.
Yet through all these changes, the familiar threads of work, family and responsibiliiy continued to run through his life.
The family’s Australian story continued to
grow. In 1932, another son, Kevin McCabe, was born at Home Hill. That same
year, William’s father Patrick died back in Dundalk, a reminder that even as
new roots were being put down in Queensland, the old Irish ties were never
entirely left behind.
Final years at Home Hill, Queensland
William became a familiar figure in the Home Hill district, where he and Lizzie raised their family and became part of the local community.
His obituary described him as a well-known resident and recalled both his years at Inkerman Mill and his military service during the First World War.
After all the places he had lived and the upheavals he had experienced, Home Hill had become the place where he spent his final years.
William Joseph McCabe died on 26 February 1959 at Home Hill, Queensland, aged seventy-three.
His death certificate lists several medical conditions, including cardiovascular disease and gross pulmonary fibrosis. The language
is formal and clinical, but behind those medical terms lies the story of a man
whose life had been shaped by years of labour, responsibility, and endurance.
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| Burial Plot of William and wife Elizabeth Home Hill General Cemetery |
Remembering William McCabe
When I began researching William, I knew relatively little about his life beyond a handful of family records and a limited understanding of his service with the Royal Irish Fusiliers. Gradually, the story has become much richer.
Even now though, questions still remain. That is one of the things about family history research - a story is rarely complete, and there is almost always another document waiting to be discovered. For now I am grateful for the records that have survived, and for the family members who have shared their documents, memories and the precious family photograph.
These have helped me piece together not just the dates and places of William's life, but something of the experiences, hardships and family connections that made it his own. Perhaps that is what I value most about researching our ancestors. Behind every name on a family tree is a life that deserves to be remembered.
Sources and acknowledgements:
Family and civil records
Ireland, Civil Registration Births, 1885 — William McCabe, 11 May 1885, Dundalk, County Louth.
Census of Ireland, 1901 — McCabe family, South Ward, Newry. National Archives of Ireland.
Ireland, Civil Registration Marriages, 1910 — William McCabe and Elizabeth Rocks.
Scotland Census, 1911 — William and Elizabeth McCabe, Coatbridge, Lanarkshire. National Records of Scotland, reference 652/29/21.
Scotland, Statutory Registers of Births, 1911 and 1912 — Mary Elizabeth and Ann McCabe.
Ireland, Civil Registration Births, 1914 — William Joseph McCabe, born 26 October 1914, registered 10 November 1914.
Ireland, Civil Registration Deaths, 1916 — William Joseph McCabe.
UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, 1928 — McCabe family aboard the Orama.
Queensland Death Registration, 1959 — William Joseph McCabe.
Military records and historical sources
British Army Medal Index Cards, 1914–1920 — Private William McCabe, Royal Irish Fusiliers, number 8384.
British Army 1914 Star Medal Roll — Royal Irish Fusiliers, Piece 2477.
British War Medal and Victory Medal Roll — Royal Irish Fusiliers, Piece 1682.
British Army Certificate of Discharge, Army Form B.108D — William McCabe.
First World War Pension Ledgers and Index Cards — William McCabe.
British Army, Army Order 117 of 1902 — Revised enlistment terms.
UK Parliament, Hansard, 22 March 1909 — Reserve Service.
National Army Museum — The Royal Irish Fusiliers (Princess Victoria's).
Royal Irish Regiment, Virtual Military Gallery — First World War battalion histories.
Nick Metcalfe — The Evolution of the Regular and Service Battalions of Princess Victoria's (Royal Irish Fusiliers), 1914–1918.
Lindsay, Rev. Samuel (compiler) — Coatbridge and the Great War, 1919, page 232.
Newspapers and family material
Sheffield Evening Telegraph, 15 October 1914 — sick and wounded soldiers evacuated from the Aisne.
Townsville Daily Bulletin, 30 June 1939, page 5 — William's recollections of Australian soldiers in France.
William McCabe obituary, 1959.
Family photograph of William and Elizabeth McCabe with their children, approximately 1915.
Photograph of William and Elizabeth McCabe's burial plot, Home Hill General Cemetery.
My sincere thanks to my maternal 3rd cousins, Trevor & Bill White (William's grandsons), for sharing and helping preserve this part of our family's history.
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