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

Added 3.5.11. Minor edits 2.3.2014.

1035, Private James WATKINSON - 13th Light Dragoons

Birth & early life

Born at Whippets, near Bury St. Edmunds.

Enlistment

Enlisted at Bury St. Edmunds on the 14th of September 1840.

Age: 20.

Height: 5' 11".

Trade: Miller.

Appearance: Fresh complexion. Grey eyes. Brown hair.

Service

From Private to Corporal: 29th of November 1862.

Discharge & pension

Discharged from Hounslow on the 2nd of November 1864 at "Own request, having completed 24 years service."

Served 24 years 9 days.

Conduct: "very good."

In possession of five Good Conduct badges.

Fourteen times entered in the Regimental Defaulter's book, Once tried by Court-martial.

Tried by a Regimental Court-martial and imprisoned from the 9-30 of August 1842. Aged 44 years 2 months on discharge.

To live in Horring Road, Bury St, Edmunds, but he was in Canterbury in 1866. Was awarded a pension of 1/2d. per day.

Medals & Commemorations

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

Documents confirm the award of the Crimean, Turkish Medal and the Long Service medals.

Awarded the Long Service & Good Conduct medal on the 9th of April 1864, with a gratuity of £5.

Death & burial

Died in the Canterbury Pension District on the 16th of December 1873.

His death, aged 55 years, has been confirmed in the GRO records; it is shown during the October-December Quarter of 1873 in Canterbury.


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