Commemorations
His name appears on a stained glass window representing the Good Centurion at the foot of the Cross placed in the Chapel of Rugby School to the 33 "Old Boys" who fell in the Crimean War as: "John Henry Thomson, 17th Lancers, aged 22 years. Killed in the Light Cavalry Charge at Balaclava, Oct. 25th 1854."
John Thomson's elder brother, General Sir Robert White-Thomson (born 21st of February 1831) erected a railing and gates around a monumental obelisk placed on Hatherleigh Moor, Devonshire, to the memory of William Morris, 17th Lancers. The two shields on the gates are inscribed:
"This frontage was erected by Sir Robert White-Thomson, K.C.B. in memory of his brother, John Henry Thomson, Lieutenant, 17th Lancers, who fell at Balaclava, October 25th 1854, when the Regiment was commanded by Captain, afterwards Colonel Morris, C.B."
Memorial to John Thomson on a gate to fellow-Charger William Morris's monument at Hatherleigh, Devon.
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The Obelisk at Hatherleigh, Devon
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Robert White-Thomson [brother]
Sir Robert White-Thomson, of Broomford Manor, Devon, had entered the 1st Dragoon Guards (his step-father had served in the same regiment and was most probably the reason why he did so) as a Cornet in April 1848, Lieutenant in December 1849, Captain in August 1851 and on becoming Major on the 14th of August 1857, retired on the same day by the sale of his commission.
(He is not shown in Hart's "Army Lists" as having any war service, is not recorded on the medal rolls of the regiment for the Crimea and according to the muster rolls of the 1st DG for 1854/6, he was "on leave" from Edinburgh from the 1st of September to the 31st of December 1854 and when the regiment embarked for the Crimea (where they arrived on the 16th of September 1855) he went to the Depot at Exeter as Acting Paymaster.)
On the 10th of April 1867 he became Lieutenant-Colonel of the 1st Devon Militia (based at Exeter) and in 1882 its Colonel Commandant (Hon Col.) In 1882 he was awarded the C.B. (Civil) and resigning his commission on the 29th of April 1893. "Was also permitted to retain his rank and to wear the prescribed uniform upon retirement." On the 22nd of June 1897 he became a K.C.B. (Civil) and died at Broomford Manor, Devonshire, on the 31st of March 1918. (The house was sold by his eldest son in 1928.)
From the London Gazette of the 20th of July 1875:
"Whitehall, July 20th 1875.
The Queen has been graciously pleased to grant unto Robert Thomas Thomson of Broomfield Manor in the parish of Jacobstowe in the County of Devon, now Lieutenant-Colonel of the 1st Regiment of the Devonshire Militia and formerly a Major in the 1st (King's) Dragoon Guards, the Royal Licence and authority that he and his issue may now take and thereafter use the surname of White in addition to and before that of Thomson.
And to command that the said Royal concession and declaration be recorded by Her Majesty's College of Arms, otherwise to be void and non-effective.
This change of name came about following his claim for it to be representative of his mother's family.
A recurring dream
In 1989 an American wrote to the then Regimental Secretary telling him of a recurring dream he had since a child.
Extracts (in his own words) from a statement by William B. Jenna, of Maryland, USA:
"It all began in October of 1938, when I was seven years old.
My father was a career Army officer (West Point, class of 1917) and we were at that time stationed at West Point, where he was assigned as an assistant professor of French.
My life was rather typical of an average seven-year old growing up in the military world. My father was deeply involved in his work, and I saw but little of him except at dinner in the evening and occasionally at week-ends, when he would sometimes take me to see an Academy parade on a Saturday. Other than that, I spent most of my time, outside of school, playing with my friends.
Then one night in October 1938, I woke up screaming in the middle of the night, from a frightening nightmare in which I was about to die. The dream began on a swirl of mist, like veils whirling around my head, and suddenly I was at a dance in a marble pavilion with crystal chandeliers, and all the guests were dancing to music played by a small orchestra. There were potted palms and beautiful furniture around the edges of the dance floor, and I was wearing a dark blue uniform with white facings on the front, and gold-braided cross-belts and cords across my chest. I was dancing with a girl, but I could not clearly see her face.
She was smiling, but her features were indistinct, as if seen thru a veil or a mist which kept shifting and changing. I was very happy, and we were enjoying the dance, when suddenly the scene shifted to total chaos. I was riding a great black horse, and the sound of hoof beats was like thunder. All around me were fiery explosions, and men and horses were being blown to pieces by cannon-fire. Suddenly there was a deafening crash, like an explosion followed by a blinding flash, and then, all at once - nothing; just blackness and nothing. I awoke screaming, and my parents came into my room and stayed with me until I calmed down. They told me it was just a nightmare, and so I gradually relaxed and drifted off to sleep.
I forgot all about it a few days later, and went back to just being a child growing up. Then about a year later it happened again, exactly the same as the first time, except that this time in the dream, hanging over the battlefield, as if suspended from the sky, was a skull-and-crossbones, and the number, "17." Again it was terrifying, and I knew that I was about to die. Once more I told my parents about it, and again it was just dismissed as a meaningless nightmare.
The dream recurred again and again each year - always in the Autumn, usually October - except during World War Two, when it occurred two and sometimes three times a year, until the end of the war - when it returned to once a year. I graduated from high school in 1949 and after two years of college, I finally entered the Army as a G.I. in January of 1952, during the Korean War.
Then, in 1954, a change occurred in the dream, and on October 25th 1954, a date appeared - and blazing across the sky over the battle-field, over the screams of wounded men and horses and all the bloody carnage, and it was the date, October 25th 1854, exactly one hundred years to the day, earlier.
I still didn't understand what it meant, but accompanied by the skull-and-crossbones, and the number 17, it was clear that something strange and extraordinary was trapped in my brain, trying to get out, but I still couldn't make any sense of it.
At the time, I was on Formosa with the Army as part of our military advisory group training the Chinese Nationalist Army, and I had no access to a library of any size. It was not until the following year, when I returned to the United States at the end of my military service, that I began to do some serious research.
By this time I was sure my dream had something to do with the British Army, and I started to read sources on British military history of that period. All at once the date jumped at me from the page - October 25th, 1854 - the disastrous British cavalry action in the Crimean War at Balaklava, now known as the Charge of the Light Brigade. This led me to books on the British cavalry units which were involved, and then I saw it: the 17th Lancers, who led the charge, and their regimental emblem was the skull-and crossbones.
This really hit me like a thunderbolt, and I could scarcely believe my eyes.
About this time, I graduated from the University at Miami, and headed west to California to work on my Master's degree at Berkeley. As it happened, my next door neighbor there was a graduate student working on his Ph.D. degree in Psychology, and was interested in extra-sensory phenomena. I told him of my recurring dream, and the results of my own research into British cavalry units, and he referred me to several books on the theory of re-incarnation; a subject which, up until that time, I had dismissed as superstitious nonsense.
However, after reading a number of case histories, I began to see that it had a direct bearing on my dream. It made sense, because in 1938 I was just seven years old, and just barely beginning to read. I had no knowledge of history, let alone any British military history, and most particularly not of a specific British cavalry regiment. I had not yet been allowed to attend movies, or listen to the radio, and no-one had ever discussed history of any kind in my presence, so there was absolutely no way I could have heard of the Crimean War, or the Charge of the Light Brigade, or even more remote - the 17th Lancers.
The dream kept recurring each year in October, often on October 25th exactly, and each time it was always the same until October 1987, when the girl in the dream spoke to me at last. I still could not make out her face, but she spoke of marriage and finally said, almost to herself, is if seeing how it would sound, "Lt. and Mrs. John Henry Thomson." Since that time the dream has not recurred.
It now remains for me to search out the archives of the 17th Lancers, and examine the casualty rolls of the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava. Perhaps then I will have some final solution to this dream that I have lived with for 50 years..."
Postscript:
"In late September of 1989, I took six weeks leave from my job as a Technical writer/editor for the Department of the Army, and my wife and I flew to England for a lengthy vacation. I contacted a Major William Walton at the Regimental Home Headquarters of the 17th/21st Lancers in Lincolnshire, and after a brief meeting, he verified that there was, in fact, a Lieutenant John Henry Thomson in the regiment in 1854, and that he was killed in the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava. The emotional impact of this revelation has been enormous, and I am still finding it difficult to accept at times, but in another way, I feel as if a great weight has been lifted off me. The dream didn't occur in October of this year, and I feel somehow that the restless spirit of Lt. Thomson is now at peace."
Mr Jenna was met [by EJB] during this visit, and given a print-out copy of John Henry Thomson's service record and a copy of a photograph of him, this being something which was greatly appreciated.
It is now known that the original of this photograph is an oil painting in the possession of the greater family. At the time it was done his mother thought "that he looked ridiculously young" and had a moustache and beard painted on later "to make him look older".
[PB: Find and add this picture.]