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LIVES OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE
The E.J. Boys Archive

Added 3.12.12. Minor edits 11.4.14.

IN PROGRESS — NOT FOR PUBLICATION

692, Private Joseph HARRISON — 8th Hussars

Birth & early life

Born in the parish of St. Michael's Without, Dublin, 1823.

Enlistment

Enlisted at Dublin on the 27th of January 1841.

Age: 18.

Height: 5' 8".

Trade: Gardener.

Fair complexion. Grey eyes. Brown hair.

Service

He was imprisoned, "by Order of the Commanding Officer", 9th-13th of March 1845.

Tried by a Regimental Court-martial, and imprisoned from the 1st of January — 2nd of April 1847.

Tried by a Regimental Court-martial, and imprisoned from the 7th of January — 1st of April 1851.

Embarked for the Crimea aboard the H.T. "Wilson Kennedy" on the 15th of May 1854.

From Private to Corporal: 27th of November 1854.

Served with Lord Raglan's Escort Troop during 1855.

Corporal to Sergeant: 27th of August 1855.

Embarked for India from Cork aboard the S.S. "Great Britain" on the 8th of October 1857.

Appointed to Troop Sergeant Major on the 31st of August 1858.

Served at Kotah and Gwalior.

The India Office records show him as marrying Anne Hinnears at Nusserabad, India, on the 13th of June 1860.

He is shown as a bachelor, aged 36, and she a spinster, 18. The ceremony was "by licence", the witnesses being Sergeant A. Smith, and C. English. The Revd Ward Maule, Asst Chaplain, was the officiating priest.

Discharge & pension

Discharged from the West Cavalry Barracks at Aldershot on the 18th of August 1865, at "Own request, after 24 years' service".

Served 24 years 202 days.

In Turkey and the Crimea: 1 year 10 months

In India: 7 years.

Conduct "very good".

If not promoted would have been in possession of five Good Conduct badges.

Appears twice in the Regimental Defaulter's book. Twice tried by Court-martial.

Awarded a pension of 1/11d. per day.

Medals

Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasps for Alma, Balaclava, Inkerman and Sebastopol.

Mutiny medal with clasp for Central India.

Further detailed medal information archived.

Commemorations

He is not shown on the list of members of the Balaclava Commemoration Society in either 1877 or 1879, neither is he known ever to have attended any of the veterans' functions.

Life after service

To live in Blackwell Gardens, Halifax, Yorkshire, being in the Halifax Pension District from admission. He was living in that for Derby from the 1st of July 1861, and in Canterbury from the 1st of January 1876.

Death & burial


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