Birth & early life
Born at Stone, near Stafford c.1824 — 1826.
In 1841 WH was living with the family of Samuel Annishaw, 45, a Labourer, with his wife and 5 children. Many of their neighbours made shoes.
National Probate Calendar, 1858: William Halmarack
(Click on image to enlarge)
1841 Census
Newcastle Street, Stone, Staffs.
William Halmarack [sic], 15, M.S. [Male Servant].
[PB: Oher Halmaracks living in Staffordshire at this time were William Halmarack, 40, Labourer, and his daughters Martha, 14, and Maris, 12. They were living less than ten miles away in Newcastle Under Lyne. There is nothing else to connect them but it is not impossible these are his father and sisters.]
Service
[PB: Add info. on likely activities 1843 — 1854. If he went to Scutari in November, is it possible he had been in the Charge? If not, why not? Why was he not awarded the clasps for Alma, Balaclava, Inkerman?]
At Scutari from the 19th of November 1854 to the 24th of February 1855.
Embarked for India from Cork aboard the S.S. Great Britain on the 8th of October 1857.
The musters for July-September of 1858 show him as being "On Field Service" from September of this period.
On passage to England on 23rd of February 1860 and at the Maidstone Depot from the 22nd of June.
[PB: add info. about time in India, the Mutiny etc.]
Medals
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasp for Sebastopol, and the Turkish medal.
Can find no trace on the Mutiny medal roll.
His Crimean medal (with one clasp) was sent to his wife, Mary.
[PB: When did they meet and marry? Presumably when the regiment was at Maidstone. Perhaps 1852-3, just before the Crimea? Mary was born in Sittingbourne, Kent.]
Life after service
1861 Census: Halmaracks at Bone Alley, Maidstone, Kent.
(Click on image to enlarge)
1861 Census
Bone Alley, Maidstone, Kent.
William Halmarack [sic], 36, Private 17th Lancers, born Stone, Staffs.
Mary, 31, wife, born Sittingbourne.
Four children are shown:
Mary A., 8, born Brighton, Sussex.
William R., 6, born Wingham, Kent.
[Some words illeg. in following.]
Elizabeth, [age? 1 month?] born Maidstone, Kent [?]
Julia, [age? 11 months?], born Canterbury, Kent.
Elizabeth Halmarack, whose birth was registered in the January Quarter of 1861, died the following year, and was buried in Maidstone on 21 April 1862. Her father, William, died less than 6 months later.
Death & burial
Died at the Maidstone Depot on the 13th of September 1862.
Next of kin: Wife, Mary Halmarak, living at Canterbury, Kent.
He was buried 16 September 1862.
Further information
A son, William Robert, entered the Royal Military Asylum (also known as The Duke of York's School) at Chelsea on the 13th of November 1862, aged 8 years and two months. His father was shown as "Dead," but his mother, Mary, as being "Still alive".
He is shown as "Returned to his mother" on the 9th of February 1863. He later enlisted into the 17th Lancers on the 23rd of November 1868, but was discharged on the 7th of January 1869.
William's widow Mary Halmarack married Thomas Bromley, an Agricultural Labourer. In 1871 she is living with her four children with William and her baby with Thomas.
1871 Census: Bromleys and Halmaracks at 5, Green Cottages, East Farleigh, Kent.
Given their ages, clearly one or two of the younger Halmarack children are not William's. Notice how "Step" has been added to the original "son", "daughter" etc. Two children shown in the 1861 Census are not shown: Mary A., and Elizabeth.
(Click on image to enlarge)
1871 Census
5, Green Cottages, East Farleigh, Kent.
Thomas Bromley, 40, Agricultural Labourer, born East Farleigh.
Mary, 41, Laundress, born Littlebourne.
William R Halmarack [sic], Stepson, Agricultural Labourer, born Wingham.
Julia R. B. [Halmarack], Stepdaughter, 11, Scholar, born Canterbury.
Amelia E. [Halmarack], Stepdaughter, 8, Scholar, born Wingham.
Thomas J.B. [Halmarack], Stepson, 2, born East Farleigh.
Herbert A. Bromley, "Own son", 4 months, born East Farleigh.
[PB: Julia R. B. Halmarack: The R.B. appears to be for Rebecca Beatrice. There is an Ancestry family tree here, and probably others too, that may be worth following up.]
Another William Halmarack, living in Sittingburne. A relation?
[PB: This is odd. "Halmarack" is an unusual name, yet here is a "William Halmarack", Saddler, of Sittingbourne, Kent, who died 7 June 1858. (Saddlery is obviously a cavalry-related trade.) So was this William's father moved down from Stone? Unlikely but not impossible. Mary came from Sittingbourne — so were she and her husband William related e.g. cousins?]
National Probate Calendar, 1858: William Halmarack
(Click on image to enlarge)
[PB: This is odd. "Halmarack" is an unusual name, yet here is a "William Halmarack", Saddler, of Sittingbourne, Kent, who died 7 June 1858. (Saddlery is obviously a cavalry-related trade.) So was this William's father moved down from Stone? Unlikely but not impossible. Mary came from Sittingbourne — so were she and her husband William related e.g. cousins?]
