Born in Gibraltar, c.1837.
Possibly the brother of 1240, Corporal Thomas Dunn — 8th Hussars. Notice they have consecutive enlistment numbers.
Enlisted at Dublin on the 12th of December 1852 and "To go to the Band."
Age: 14 years 8 months.
Height: 5' 4".
Trade: None.
Attained the age of 15 years and on to "Man's pay" from the 3rd of April 1853.
Sent to the Depot Troop at Canterbury on the 19th of May 1854 and appointed Trumpeter on the 1st of October 1854.
Joined the regiment in the Crimea on the 4th of April 1855.
He was Trumpeter in the Troop which was escort to Lord Raglan and later to General Simpson in 1855.
"Deserted" from Belfast on the 17th of December 1856 and rejoined on the 16th of April 1857.
Tried by a District Court-martial at Dundalk for "Desertion and losing his necessaries" on the 19th of April 1857 and was sentenced to 84 days' imprisonment with hard labour, marked with the letter "D" and to forfeit "all past service."
He was a prisoner in a Hospital from the date of his rejoining until the 31st of May, and released from a Military Prison on the 4th of September.
There is no indication of his being returned to the rank of Private, but it must have consequent on his desertion.
Embarked for India aboard the SS "Great Britain" on the 8th of October 1857.
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasp for Sebastopol.
Lummis and Wynn state that "he did not embark for the Crimea".
Mutiny medal with clasp for Central India.
Served at Kotah.
Died at Nusserabad, India, on the 1st of October 1859.
The India Office records show him as having died at Nuserabad from "Feb. C.C."* on the 30th of September 1859, aged 21 years.
He was buried on the same day by the R. C. Chaplain.
Note [PB]:
* "Common continuous fever" (also abbreviated f.c.c.) was notoriously catch-all and unspecific — "which means what?", wrote Florence Nightingale scathingly in her Notes on the Health of the British Army. According to Nightingale, it was of no diagnostic (or statistical) value, typically conflating fevers associated with many different conditions, among them what was then called hospital or camp fever (which the French called "fievre typhoide"), pneumonia, and tuberculosis [pp 852-3]. See notes on Fever.