LIVES OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE
The E.J. Boys Archive
Added 14.9.11. Minor edits 26.6.13, 4.4.15, 8.2.17. 2 images added 20.1.2014.
Private Joseph IRELAND — 935, 17th Lancers
Birth & early life
Born at Turswald [?], near Kirkoswald, Cumbria, in 1826. [The 1861 Census says, more simply, born Penrith. His age stated in 1861 implies he was born c.1829.]
Enlistment [1]
Originally enlisted into the 34th Foot at Penrith on the 1st of December 1845. Regimental No. 2575.
Age: 19 years 3 months.
Height: 5' 8".
Trade: Labourer
Service [1]
Discharge & pension [1]
Discharged at Waterford, Ireland, on the 15th of January 1849, "by purchase", upon a payment of £30.
Enlistment [2]
Re-enlisted into the 17th Lancers at Dublin on the 24th of January 1849.
Age: 21 [sic].
Height: 5' 9".
Trade: None shown.
Service [2]
[PB: It is posssible he is the "Joe I_____" mentioned in a letter from "CR" (almost certainly 1062 Charles Randall, 17th Lancers) sent from the Crimea shortly after the Charge and published in the Morning Post newspaper in England on the 21st of November 1854. This may lend support to the view that both are in fact previously unrecognised Chargers. However, it is not obvious how Randall's mother would have known Joseph Ireland.]
From Private to Corporal: 11th of January 1855.
Sent to Scutari on the 1st of October 1855.
Corporal to Sergeant: 10th of October 1855.
Appointed to Troop Sergeant Major on the 2nd of May 1856.
Sent to the Depot at Canterbury and removed to Sergeant on the 1st of October 1857.
Recruiting at Brighton during the latter part of 1857 and early 1858.
"Absent", 13th-14th of June 1858, and reduced to Private by a Regimental Court-martial on the 15th of July 1858.
From Private to Corporal: 1st of February 1859.
Discharge & pension
EJB: Documents are missing both for those who went to the Cavalry Depot when the regiment went to India for the Mutiny campaign (1857) and were later discharged and also for those who returned from India and were discharged during the period 1861-62.
According to W0/25/3869 he was discharged, "Time expired", on the 15th of January 1860, with a total service of 14 years 47 days to count. Conduct "good", but is not in possession of any Good Conduct badges.
Medals
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasps for Alma, Balaclava, Inkerman, Sebastopol, and the Turkish medal.
Commemorations
His portrait appeared in the Illustrated London News for the 30th of October 1875. Although his name is not shown among those present at the first Balaclava Banquet, he presumably attended.
His name was on the 1877 list but not on the 1879 revised list of members of the Balaclava Commemoration Society.
A roll was published in the "Balaclava Centenary" number of the 17/21 Lancers in 1954, claiming to list all those of the Regiment who had ridden in the Charge. The name of "J. Ireland" was among these, but no proof positive can be found to substantiate the claim. Neither was he named among those invited by Mr. T. Roberts to attend the Jubilee celebrations held in his Fleet Street offices in June 1897 and whose claims to have ridden were said to have been thoroughly "vetted".
[PB, Jan 2014: However, we must check his own memoir (see below).]
Life after service
1861 Census
20 Mornington Place, St Pancras, Marylebone.
Joseph Ireland, 32, Police Constable (379 S), born Penrith.
Hannah, 33, born Manchester.
One child and a lodger were also shown.
Joseph Ireland was sworn in as a Constable "to keep the peace in all of the Royal Parks and Gardens within the Metropolitan Police District" on the 8th of September 1863.
An enquiry to the Metropolitan Police archives shows that no record of his service still exists (the series having been destroyed many years ago). One to the Royal Parks Police (Regent's Park was under their jurisdiction at the period in question) failed to elicit any response.
[RM, Jan 2014: In 2012, contact was made with a Royal Parks Constabulary archivist who was able to confirm details of his service. Ireland commenced his enrolment in the service on 30th July 1863 and left the service on 30th April 1889. His service numbers were 13 and 15 variously and he was on duty throughout his career at St James's Park, Battersea Park, and Regent's Park. His previous service was noted as being "Hussars" and "S" division Metropolitan Police.]
1871 Census
18, Peabody Square, Parish of St. Margaret's, Westminster.
At the time of the Census taken on the 2nd of April 1871 he was aged 44, and a Park Keeper.
He was living with his wife, Hannah, 50, born at Holme, Lancaster, and a daughter, Alice, 18, born at Trowbridge in Wiltshire, a Dressmaker by trade.
Death & burial
Died 2nd March 1899 at Salford.
Death registered
Joseph Ireland, aged 75 years, March Quarter 1899, Chorlton.
He was buried in Grave No. 492, Plot F, in Weaste Cemetery, Salford. The burial records show four interments in the same grave-space:
"7th of March 1899, Joseph Ireland, aged 73 years.
Alice O'Neil Ireland, 5th of April 1904, aged 61 years
Jane Davis, 2nd of August 1906, aged 3 years
Joseph W. Ireland, 13th of April 1916, aged 43 years."
Although there are four interments in the same grave-space, only he is recorded on the stone. (There is a photograph of this gravestone in the 17th Lancer file.)
(Click on image to enlarge)
His gravestone in Weaste Cemetery bears the inscription:
"In loving memory of Joseph Ireland, late of the 17th Lancers, and One of the Six Hundred, who departed this life, March 2nd 1899 aged 73 years. Thy will be done."
Likenesses
His portrait appeared in the Illustrated London News, 30th of October 1875. Although his name is not shown among those present at the first Balaclava Banquet, he presumably attended.
Portrait of Joseph Ireland in the Illustrated London News 1875 [low res]
(Click on image to enlarge)
Further information
In 1975 Mr. W.R. Dunn, of Chalfont Road, Liverpool, gave [EJB] the following information:
"As Headmaster of a small primary school I was recently asked by a parent if it were possible to obtain a book on the Charge of the Light Brigade in order to get her young son interested in a remote ancestor. Further enquiries revealed the enclosed account."
(There is a copy in the 17th Lancer file.)
This was a printed account of the life and death of Joseph Ireland and also of his funeral. It would appear to have been specially printed and not forming part of an extract from any newspaper.
It revealed Ireland had joined the Metropolitan Mounted Police after leaving the Army, but after three years in this had resigned in order to take up the post of Sergeant Park Keeper in Regent's Park, London, were he had remained for twenty-six years before going into business at Manchester. He was buried in Salford Borough Cemetery, with full military honours, on the 9th of March 1899.
This report also gives the impression that he rode in the Charge.
In December 1981 letters were published in a national newspaper from children who had famous ancestors. One of these was from a descendant of Joseph Ireland, an Ian Morgan, aged 15 years, of Liverpool:
"My great-great-grandfather was one of the gallant 600 who took part in the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava and later became Sergeant Gate Keeper at St. James's Park [sic] London. My dad still has his hat, a button off his coat, and the hand-carved wooden top which was his childhood toy."
A further letter from the boy's father showed that he (the father) was descended from one of Joseph Ireland's sons, William, who had died quite young. One of his children, also William, was killed in action in Palestine, early in the 1914-18 War:
"He had previously been looking after his widowed mother, but she, being now destitute and at her wits' end, my grand-mother was forced to sell her father-in-law's medals and other effects for a pittance to buy food for herself and her family.
So sadly we do not know where his medals are now, but you can see him wearing them in the photograph. Also the hat that my son mentioned in his letter. My grandmother also told me that the Mrs. Ireland mentioned in the printed report was only her husband's step-mother and that Joseph Ireland had previously been married to a daughter of the Earl of Strathmore, but this is only hearsay, and I have no proof."
(There is a copy of this photograph in the 17th Lancer file.)
References & acknowledgements
Census information for 1861 and registration of death kindly provided by Chris Poole.
