Lieutenant George York Henderson

Regiment: Royal Irish Rifles
Panel reference: Panel 10.
Date published: 28/12/1917
Killed in action: Yes
Date of death: 22/11/1917
Age at death: 24
Cemetery: Cambrai Memorial, Louverval, Nord, France
Information: Lieutenant George York Henderson M.C., Royal Irish Rifles, third surviving son of the late Sir James Henderson, D.L., Belfast, and Lady Henderson, Oakley House, Windsor Park, Belfast, was killed in action on November 22nd during the great advance of the Ulster Division in the neighbourhood of Cambrai. He was gazetted to the Army Service Corps, and was later appointed Adjutant of the Ulster Divisional Train, accompanying the division to France in that capacity with the rank of captain. He subsequently transferred to the infantry, and was gazetted to a battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles in March, 1916. He was wounded in the Somme battle, and was awarded the Military Cross in the victorious attack on the Messines-Wytschaete ridge for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in commanding his company after his commander had been killed. He personally knocked out one machine gun with rifle grenades, and showed great ability in restoring the direction for his battalion when the landmarks were obliterated.