He was most probably the brother of 939 Denis Hanrahan, both men having Clonmell connections.
Enlisted at Clonmell on the 8th of June 1847.
Age: 21.
Height: 5' 8".
Trade: None shown.
From Private to Corporal: 19th of February 1850.
"Absent", 9th-19th of March 1851 and reduced to Private by a Regimental Court-martial on the 16th of March 1851.
A child, also named Thomas, was born to him and his wife (name unknown) at Limerick in 1853.
Embarked for the Crimea aboard the H.T. "Wilson Kennedy" on the 2nd of May 1854.
Tried by a District Court-martial on the 5th of December 1854 for "being drunk on duty and losing a saddle." Given 50 lashes and awarded stoppage of pay.
From Private to Corporal: 23rd of June 1856.
Corporal to Sergeant: 1st of October 1857.
Embarked for India aboard the S.S. "Great Britain" on the 8th of October 1857.
Died at Nusserabad on the 22nd of October 1859.
1263 James Rawlins mentions him in his manuscript diary (see copy in the "Memoirs" file):
"I am sorry to say that another old friend died as well; Sergeant Ths. Hannharn [sic] died at about four hours,- poore fellow — he was a most healthy a looking man as one could see in a day's march."
[PB: This diary has since been edited and privately published by Ken Horton as One Hussar: Diary of T.S.M. James Rawlins, 8th Hussars, 1853-1863., c.1985. Paperback, A5, 78pp.]
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasps for Alma, Balaclava, Inkerman and Sebastopol.
Mutiny medal with clasp for Central India.
Served at Kotah.
Died at Nusserabad on the 22nd of October 1859.
The India Office records show him as dying of "Feb. C.C." [PB: Febrile convulsions?] at Nusserabad on the 22nd of October 1859, aged 30 years. He was buried on the same day by the R.C. Chaplain.
His name is recorded on a tablet high up on a wall of St. John's Garrison Church at Meerut.
Bearing some 22 names of N.C.O.s of the regiment who died in India between 1858 and 1861, the tablet has the word 8th Hussars at the top, underneath the Regimental motto in a scroll and at the base:
"This memorial is a melancholy tribute of respect and esteem in affectionate remembrance of comrades in many a trying day and hard fought field is erected by their surviving brother Non-Commissioned Officers."
(There is a photograph of this in the 8th Hussar file.)