Born at Guildford, Surrey, c.1828? [c.1832?]
Enlisted at Warwick [WL: Woolwich] on the 12th of January 1852.
Age: 24. [sic? WL says enlisted aged 20, hence born c.1832]
Height: 5' 7".
Trade: Servant.
[WL: 1852: Private, 1855: Private, 1864: Private.]
At Scutari from the 34 [?] of April — 11th of May 1855.
Discharged, "time expired", from Dublin on the 12th of January 1864.
[WL: Discharge allowance Dublin to London £1 2s 5d., London to Woolwich 4d. Total allowance £2 2s 9d. ]
Conduct and character: "good".
In possession of two Good Conduct badges.
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasps for Alma, Balaclava, Inkerman and Sebastopol.
A four-clasp Crimean medal, with impressed naming to "J. Hitchcock. 4th Lt. Drgns." was sold from the "Alexander Duncan" collection at a Glendining's auction on the 17th of June 1924.
A four-clasp Crimean medal with impressed naming to "J. Hitchcock. 4th Lt. Dgns." and a Turkish medal (Sardinian type) were offered in a Glendining's auction on the 14th of March 1968.
A similar pair (named as before) were offered in a Sotheby's auction on the 10th of December 1975. At the second auction it was stated — "But participation in the Charge not proven..."
He was not a member of the Balaclava Commemoration Society in either 1877 or 1879.
1881 Census
No. 6, "P" Block, Peabody Buildings, in Pimlico.
Research has shown that according to the 1881 Census (taken 3rd of April) James Hitchcock lived with his wife and two children at No. 6 "P" Block, Peabody Buildings, in Pimlico.
He was 49 years of age, a Railway Labourer, born at Guildford, Surrey, living with his wife, Pheobe [Phoebe?], 37, born at Thursley, Surrey, and children James, 6, and Pheobe, 3. Both children were shown as "Scholars", born in the parish of St. George's, Pimlico.
A check with the Peabody Trust shows that they do not have records for this particular property going back to that date, but do say that it was erected in 1876.
James Hitchcock himself died on the 8th of June 1883 (still at the Pimlico address) from "Advanced Phthisis. 3 months". His widow was present at, and the informant of, his death.
He was buried in a common grave in Brompton Cemetery (being the 5th interment of a total of six) on the 16th of June 1883, in Grave No. 117/429 Plot V.
There is a copy of his death certificate in the "Certificates" file.
No headstone was erected. (There is a photograph of his grave-site in the 11th [PB: Neg336-21.] Hussar file.)
[PB: Add the pic of his grave-site.]
Early in 1984 two of his elderly granddaughters, living in Surrey, visited Canon Lummis at the Home where he was then living, and told him of the family belief that James Hitchcock had ridden in the Charge.
They also showed him a photograph of Hitchcock in the uniform of the 4th Light Dragoons as well as an oil-painting of him (also in uniform) on horse-back. This is done in a style seen before for other regiments, e.g. the facial features could be anyone, although he is depicted as wearing his Crimean medals in the same manner in both pictures, viz. with the Turkish medal before the English one.
According to the Regiment, the uniform and accoutrements are as they should be. (See copies of both in the 4th Hussar file.)
The granddaughters knew but few details of him — except that he lived in Peabody Buildings, Pimlico, London, worked for the railway and died when his son (their father) was some 9 or 10 years old, and had been buried in Brompton Cemetery. Further enquiry of them brought the information that:
"our father originally had four medals belonging to him (two silver and two bronze) both the silver ones being stolen from him when, as a young man he was living at Hampton, Surrey. [Presumably the Crimean medals.] The bronze ones never came into our possession. Grandfather had three horses killed under him, but came through without a wound."
(Just what these two "bronze" medals were cannot be confirmed.)
According to the family in respect of the children, there was apparently an elder sister named Elizabeth Gertrude Pheobe [PB: Phoebe?], who lived to be 69 years of age and resided at Send, near Ripley, Surrey (she does not appear to have been at home on the night of the Census taking) and that the younger daughter's name was Rhoda and not Pheobe, and that she died at a young age.
Check: Wendy Leahy, http://shadowsoftime.co.nz/4ths/dragoon.html.