Commemorations
Born c.1835.
Enlisted at Manchester on the 30th of March 1855.
Age: 20.
Height: 5' 5".
Trade: Labourer.
Discharged, "time expired", from Edinburgh on the 21st of March 1867.
Conduct and character: "good".
In possession of two Good Conduct badges.
Entitled to the Crimean medal only. (See the record of 1941 Samuel Briggs, 4th Light Dragoons.)
"Landed in the Crimea after the 9th of September 1855, but is specially entitled to the Crimean medal in consequence of having served with the Regiment in the Expedition to Eupatoria during the month of October of that same year", Camp Aldershot, 16th of November 1857.
Not recorded by Lummis and Wynn.
From Wendy Leahy, Shadows of Time website:
Joseph Hibbert
BORN: c1835 or 1837
AT: From Manchester
FATHER: John Hibbert, Carpenter
1st REGIMENT NO: 1918
ENLISTED: 20 03 1855 Manchester aged 20 years
HEIGHT AT ENLISTMENT: 5' 5 3/4"
RANK: 1855: Private
May 1860: Private, Hulme
1864: Private
EMBARKATIONS: 03 09 1855 England [PB:?]
DISEMBARKATIONS: 03 09 1855 [Crimea].
DISCHARGE: 1Q 1867 Discharged, to reside in Manchester. No discharge entry
MARRIAGE: 1ST WIFE: Mary Kilmartin [x] Spinster, of 160 Chester Road, Hulme
Daughter of Thomas Kilmartin, Farmer
MARRIED: 02 05 1860 Manchester Cathedral Ref. No. 461
Married after banns by H H Westmore, Chaplain
Joseph, Bachelor, 23 years, Private 4LD, of 160 Chester Road, Hulme
Witnesses [1st completely faded] and Sarah Kelly
BORN: c1839
TNA SOURCES: WO/12/660
WO/12/668
WO/12/671
OTHER SOURCES: Manchester Cathedral Marriages
[Source: Wendy Leahy, http://shadowsoftime.co.nz/4ths/dragoonh/hibbert3.html (accessed 25 July 2015). The editors are very grateful to her for allowing us to reproduce information she has collected.]
[PB: It appears that a "William" Hibbert moved to the USA in the 1870s, where his (tall) tales of the Charge led to his being "recognized and made much of by the military and naval men of the United States". This article, run in the Montreal Witness, was reproduced in The Aberdare Times, 12th May 1894, p.4. Could this be him? ]
ONE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE.
Wm. Hibbert, one of the last survivors of the famous charge of the Light Brigade, at Balaclava, died a few days ago in New York city. He had reached his sixty-fifth birthday just the day before his death. It was with great pride that he exhibited on his birthday the medal which told the story of his share in the Crimean war. Pointing to a picture which represented the famous charge, he said:
"There, ye see? There's where we was goin' in. That's Nolan — Capt. Nolan, him as brought the message that they had all the row about. History never found out who sent the message for us to charge the guns, but Lucan never sent it. Everybody always thought Raglan sent it to Cardigan; that was his brother-in-law. "Oh!" and old Hibbert sighed and shook his head, "it was a pity, a sinful, terrible thing. I can remember. It is as plain as if I saw it now, as Nolan rode up and gave the order."
"Cardigan turned on him and cried: 'Nolan, who gave that order?' No answer. Then he asked again: 'Who sent that order?' But there was no answer. The third time he asked him, and all the answer Nolan made was — he pointin' to the breastworks: 'There is the enemy. Go!' Then he dashed on.
"Cardigan threw back his head and said Well, here's the last.' For an hour and a half after that nobody knew what was happening, except that, we was runnin' right into hell, as the poem said. Three miles away. It looked like a life-time journey, and the men began to fall away as the shells yelled and tore among us. Every time one toppled off his horse around me, I thought I was goin' next. The man who expected to come out of that would have been crazy. The four men next me in front, behind and on both sides, were killed, and as I spurred on alone I saw a shell coming straight towards me. Hibbert, ye're gone,' said I. But I gave just one jab o' the spur into that mare and she leaped like a shot. She swerved, I should think, a dozen feet, and the shell took her nigh hind leg. I went tumbling. When I picked myself up there was a horse without any rider. I got into the saddle and went on with the rush. It was terrible."
As the old man went on with his story his pale face took on color, and his wife, tears in her eyes, came over and said, 'Please don't let him talk too much.'
"Be quiet," said the veteran, "I'll be through in a minute. Well, sir, as I said, I spurred the big horse on, and I passed Capt. Williams. 'Hello, Bill,' says he, 'Where's that mare o' yourn?' 'Gone,' says I, a shell struck her. I found this fellow runnin' loose.' The captain looked at me an' says, 'Bill, if I get back out o' this alive you'll have a special mention for that.' That was the last I saw of him. Well, when we got up to about three hundred yards of the works, they couldn't train the guns on us, and we just fought the Russians back an' cut 'em down an' spiked the guns. That's what we went for, ye see. We all had little spikin' mallets," and as he said this the old fellow's hand intuitively sought his belt, but there was no mallet there, nothing save the thick plaid shawl which was pinned tight about him.
The veteran died the day after telling his story. During the last years of his life he had been recognized and made much of by the military and naval men of the United States, where he lived for the last twenty years — Montreal Weekly Witness.
[Source: The Aberdare Times, 12th May 1894, p.4. http://newspapers.library.wales/view/3028945/3028949/65/light%20brigade (accessed 24 July 2015).]
Press clipping about his presence at the Royal Military Tournament in 1892, kindly provided by Chris Poole.