Born on the 2nd of May 1831, the son of Henry Ancell, Esq., of Norfolk Crescent, Hyde Park, London, and 34, Euston Square, London.
Mathematical Scholar at King's College School.
[PB: Presumably the junior department of King's College London, in the Strand. If so, he would have been a contemporary of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, whose father taught Italian at the school. DGR joined in 1837. John Sell Cotman was the art master.]
Surgeon's Diploma from the R.C.S. on the 28th of April 1853.
Assistant-Surgeon (Staff): 28th of April 1854.
Assistant-Surgeon in the 11th Hussars: 2nd of February 1855.
Assistant-Surgeon Ancell served the Eastern campaign from the 2nd of February 1855, including the Siege of Sebastopol and the Expedition to Kertch with the Light Cavalry Brigade. (Medal and Clasp.)
He joined the regiment in the Crimea on the 2nd of February 1855 and went to Kertch with the Light Cavalry Brigade.
Died in the camp at Kadikoi on the 10th of August 1855.
From R.S.M. George Loy Smith's memoir:
"Our sergeant [?], Surgeon Ansell [sic], died on the 10th August of a putrid fever. I at once took an inventory of his effects, which I sold by auction in the centre of the encampment a few days afterwards (it being my duty to take possession of and sell by auction the effects of any deceased officers, and after deducting a commission of five per cent to hand over the balance to the major of the regiment.)
When I held up his dress jacket, none of the officers present would bid for it as a change of clothing had taken place, (tunics being substituted in place of dress jackets and pelisses), so I bid 15s. There being no advance I knocked it down to myself.
The other articles were sold equally cheap, the officers not caring to possess the clothing of one who had died from such a terrible disease.
Although Mr. Ansell died in the centre of the encampment, his was the only case of its kind in the regiment during the campaign."
[Source: George Loy Smith, A Victorian RSM, 1987, pp.198-199]
[PB: "Putrid fever" – presumably the louse-borne disease typhus. Also known as "camp fever", "jail fever", "hospital fever", "ship fever", "famine fever" etc.]
"Epidemic typhus (also called "camp fever", "jail fever", "hospital fever", "ship fever", "famine fever", "putrid fever", "petechial fever", "Epidemic louse-borne typhus," and "louse-borne typhus") is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters."
[Source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemic_typhus (accessed 4.3.2016).]
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasp for Sebastopol and the Turkish Medal.
Malcolm Ancell died in the camp at Kadikoi, about a mile north of Balaclava, on the 10th of August 1855, and was buried in the 11th Hussar cemetery on the road between Kadikoi and Karani.
In 1856 a wooden memorial existed bearing the words:
"Sacred to the memory of Malcolm Currie Angell [sic] Asst. Surgn. 11th (P.O.A.) Hussars, who died August 10th 1855, aged 25 years."
He was shown as "M.C. Ancell" on a larger board which commemorated all N.C.O.s and men of the regiment.