Born at Kirkee, East Indies, on the 10th of January 1832, the son of George Clout of the 4th Light Dragoons and his wife Hannah nee Gray.
Although christened Hannah, as an army wife she was referred to as "Jane". For example she appears as "Mrs Jane Clout" in the log of the Duke of Sussex, the ship that took them to Bombay February-June 1831.
It would seem George Clout was conceived on the journey out to India.
He was baptised by the Revd. David Young, Chaplain, on the 1st of April 1832. An entry shows, "Said to be born on the 10th of January 1832."
Some muster rolls erroneously show 1491 George Clout as born at Sandhurst, Kent — his father's presumed birthplace.
His father was 587 George Clout, 4th Light Dragoons, who appears to have been born at Sandhurst, Kent [near Tunbridge Wells], though no record has yet been found of his birth or baptism [WR: It is possible he originally used a different forename]. He had enlisted at the age of 20 into the 4th Light Dragoons at Maidstone on the 23rd of June 1829 for "unlimited service".
He was 5' 9" in height, with a fresh complexion, grey eyes and brown hair. His trade was given as Labourer.
He was discharged from Chatham in the rank of Farrier on the 22nd of November 1853 at the age of 44 years 2 months with a total service of 24 years 79 days. Of this he had spent 10 years 9 months in India.
The reason for his discharge was given as:
"Medical disability — Disabled by the effects of dislocation of left tibia forward on the foot and a fracture of the fibula about two inches from the ankle joint. The injury is the result of an accident — occurred by falling on ice on the 15th of last February whilst walking across the Barrack square at Ipswich."
Conduct: "that of a good soldier". Is in possession of four [WL: 5] Good Conduct badges.
He was awarded a pension of 1/- per day. To live at Brighton after his discharge, but he is shown in the Pension Books as being at Ipswich in 1854 and in 1855 as "Turkish contingent" with his pension being paid to his wife, until the 30th of June 1856.
Appointed Assistant Warder in the Convict Prison in Bermuda from the 1st of July 1857, his pension then being paid to his son 1514 James Clout, 4th Light Dragoons up to the 18th of December 1862.
He died in Bermuda on the 1st of March 1868 [WL: 1869], his pension having been paid up to that time to his wife, living at Ipswich.
Enlisted at Teddington on the 16th of July 1851.
Age: 19 years 3 months.
Height: 5" 9".
Trade: Farrier.
Appearance: Fresh complexion. Hazel eyes. Brown hair.
[WL: Band member: 4th Quarter 1853 to 1st Quarter 1854.]
Joined the regiment in the Crimea from Scutari on the 14th of December 1854.
"Deserted": 4th of June — 3rd of July 1860.
Tried by a Regimental Court-martial on the 4th of July 1860, sentenced to be branded with the letter "D" and to be imprisoned to the 1st of September 1860. He also forfeited 8 years 323 days by this conviction.
[PB: Note his brother James (1514 James Clout, 4th Light Dragoons) also deserted around this time. Was there a connection?]
Discharged from Dublin on the 28th of October 1861.
"Medically unfit from contraction of the toes of both feet. It has been coming on for the past three years and is possibly the result of pre-disposition."
WL transcribes this as:
"Labours under contraction of toes of both feet. The disability has been coming on for the last 3 years and may be attributed to predisposition."
Served 1 year 34 days, to count. In Turkey and the Crimea 1 year 10 months.
Conduct and character: "Indifferent." Not in possession of any Good Conduct badges. Once tried by Court-martial.
Aged 29 years 6 months on discharge.
To live at No. 21 Norwich Road, Ipswich. [WL: 27 Norwich Road, the residence of his brother, Thomas Arthur Clout, and family.]
He applied for a pension on the 16th of July 1891 [WL: 1895], but there is no indication of any official reply to this request.
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasp for Sebastopol.
Wendy Leahy has made a special study of the Clout family, with the intention of writing a biography, but in the meanwhile has kindly agreed to share some of her discoveries. She has asked us to withhold information about a number of aliases George and James Clout used in their post-service lives until after publication.
"Sometime between 1862 when he was imprisoned for theft in Ipswich (he'd been out with a fellow 4LD on furlo in Ipswich and stolen his wallet) and 1864, when he married in London, George assumed the name George Robert [...], an alias which he used for the rest of his life.
He lived in London for a time, working as an ostler and a carpenter, then lived in Manchester with his brother James and his family in the early 1870s [he can be traced in the 1871 Census], then back to London where he ran a beerhouse at 10 Clapham High Street, which is right up the north end, just beyond of the railway bridge.
His beer house was apparently on the site of the current Royal Oak, which the last time I saw it a year or two ago was having the last touches put on a spectacular paint job. It was bring covered in a mural of an oak tree. In George's day his neighbours were small-time businesses including a fruit shop, ironmonger, stone cooper and turner, a baker, butcher, cabinet maker, and the Post Office. Down the side of the beerhouse was a lane called Cranmer's Court with a chapel of the Plymouth Brethren. This lane still runs along the south side of the Royal Oak. So whether George's beer house was in that building, I'm not sure.
The Grays were there in January 1874 when their son George Henry John was born. They had been in Manchester with James Clout in the 1871 census, and by November 1876 had moved on to St Pancras. I've not been able to track down rate books or directories giving more detailed dates for his tenure in Clapham as yet.
Poor young George Henry John had a sorry end. After his parents split in the early 1880s, he went with his mother and sister to Birmingham.
At the age of 14 he was working in a tube factory, and one morning, a little over confident in his new role as man of the house, took on a task he had been told not to do, namely putting a new drum on a machine. He was pulled into the machine and crushed. The subsequent inquest put the blame on the poor lad. As his father had moved on to Hackney Wick from Pancras, possibly trying to cover his tracks from his estranged wife, it seems unlikely that George ever found out about the death of his son.
By November 1876 the family had moved to Pancras where George ran a grocery shop, had bankruptcy problems, and split up with his wife. His wife took their two surviving children to the Midlands and there seems to have been no further contact between them.
George was then living with his new woman, and was possibly the father of one or two of her illegitimate children (hence the split!).
They moved to Hackney Wick in the early 1880s where he ran a beer shop, then moved to Mortlake in the late 1880s where he worked as a farrier and labourer, and finally moved back to Pancras about 1900, still working as a labourer.
It is probable that George Clout applied for a pension in 1895 because by this time he had quite a few young children from his second liaison, and was in poor health. I would love to know more about the specific correspondence but according to the staff at the National Archives it is unlikely to exist anymore. He must have been desperate, as most of his pension entitlement had been wiped out by his desertion. Also he would have had to dust off his old name, Clout, to write to the War Office about it.
Died on 18th October 1904 of cancer of the pancreas at the Highgate Infirmary, Pancras, and was buried in Finchley Cemetery on 21st October 1904.
In November 2013, the EJBA was contacted by New Zealand-based Wendy Leahy, whose remarkable website (Shadows of Time) includes detailed information about the 4th Light Dragoons in the nineteenth century. We are very grateful to her for adding considerably to our knowledge of the lives of the Clout family.
Her own page on George Clout [father] can be viewed here, George Clout [son] here, and James Clout here (all accessed 21.11.2013).