Quartermaster Henry Fletcher LANE — 8th Hussars

Birth & early life

Born c. March 1812 in the parish of St Pancras, London, the son of Henry Lane, an architect.

Enlistment

Enlisted into the 14th Light Dragoons at Hounslow on the 11th of October 1831.His Regimental number was 438.

Age: 19 years and 7 months.

Height: 5' 10".

Trade: Jeweller.

Transferred to the 8th Hussars on the 1st of January 1832, by a Horse Guards Order, dated the 4th of December 1841. His Regimental number was then given as 401.

Service

Corporal in the 8th Hussars: 14th of July 1835.

Sergeant, 8th Hussars: 13th of October 1837.

Appointed to Troop Sergeant Major on the 12th of October 1840.

Promoted to Regimental Sergeant-Major: 17th of September 1841.

Marriage

He married Margaret Nicholson, the daughter of Thomas Nicholson, a publican, at the parish church of Fulford, Yorkshire, on the 8th June 1844.

He was shown as being 31 years 3 months of age and she as 19 years 4 months.

The ceremony (by licence) was performed by the Revd J. H. Sutton and the witnesses were Thomas Nicholson and Charles Dawson.

[After Henry Lane's death in 1859, his widow marriedJohn Atkins Pickworth (by then the Riding Master of the 8th Hussars) in 1868.]

Commissioned as Quartermaster in the 8th Hussars at Exeter on the 17th of March 1854, when he was also granted the sum of £150.

Death & burial

Died at Nusserabad, India, on the 17th of October 1859 from "Cerebritis". He was buried on the following day by the Revd C.T. Wilson, Asst. Chaplain.

In his manuscript diary 1265 James Rawlins recorded:

"18th Oct. Our Quarter Master died, we had a parrade in full dress, all the officers of the Station followed, also the band of the 53rd Regiment."

Campaign service

Quartermaster Lane served the Eastern campaign of 1854-55, including the battles of the Alma, Balaclava, Inkerman and the Siege and fall of Sebastopol. (Medal and Clasps.) Served also in the Mutiny campaign of 1858-59. (Medal and Clasp.)

Medals

Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasps for Alma, Balaclava, Inkerman and Sebastopol, the Turkish Medal and the Mutiny medal with clasp for Central India.

Commemorations

Death & burial

Further information

Henry Frederick Lane [son]

Among the private family papers of John Pickworth of the 8th Hussars, which were purchased by the Regiment at an auction were a number of letters, etc., referring to Henry Frederick Lane, Army Pay Department.

Most of these were as to whether or not he should occupy regimental quarters in Kasr-el-Nil Barracks in Cairo, Egypt, in 1889 and requests from the Forage Dept that a number of forage bags issued to his syce [PB: ?] had not been returned and if this was not done he would be charged for them.

This man was Henry Fletcher Lane's son, born on the 10th of January 1853, Ensign in the 53rd Foot, 3rd of September 1870; Lieutenant, ditto, 28th of October 1871; Lieutenant, 13th Hussars, 12th of November 1873; Captain, ditto, 29th of September 1880.

Seconded for Probationary Service in the Army Pay Department and a Paymaster (Hon. Captain) in the 4th Dragoon Guards from the 9th of November 1881.

Staff-Paymaster and Hon. Major, A.P.D. 16th of February 1899 .

Retired and on to half-pay, 26th of September 1909.

Died at The Avenue, Rowledge, near Farnham, Surrey (on the Hants and Surrey border) on the 14th of March 1912.

Served in Bermuda, 1870-73, and in the East Indies, 1874-80. With the Egyptian Expeditionary Force in 1882.

Action of Kassasin (with the 4th Dragoon Guards). (Medal and Bronze Star.)

At Suakin in 1885 (Clasp) and in 1885-86 served with the Frontier Field Force.

Also with the papers was a letter from the Horse Guards, dated the 2nd of August 1860 and addressed to Henry Fletcher Lane's widow, Margaret, advising her that:

"The Secretary of State for War has placed your children, viz; Anna Maria Lane and Henry Frederick Lane on the Compassionate List at £8 (in lieu of £6.) a year each, to commence from the 1st day of October 1859,"

There was also a seemingly full-size drawing, which measures some 18" by 13", of either an inscription to be put on a tomb-stone or possibly as a memorial tablet in a church. (There is no indication which.) The wording is as follows:

"Sacred to the memory of Henry Fletcher Lane, Quartermaster, 8th Hussars, who died at Nusserabad, 17th Oct. 1859.

This monument was erected by his brother officers of the 8th Hussars, in which regiment he served 27 years."

PB: Is the next sentence a part of the Horse Guards' letter, and therefore a quote?]

The drawing inscription previously noted is that which is on his tomb-stone in Nazirabad [sic] Cemetery, India.

His son, Henry Frederick, left the sum of £1,492/15/8d. to his sister, Anna Maria Lane, in his will.

Life after service

Death & burial