Born at Lakenhall, near Norwich.
Possibly a son of Charles Aldous, who had married Harriet Miller at Old Lakenham on the 19th of September 1830.
1841 Census
Harbury Place, St Peter's Mancroft, Norwich.
Charles Aldous, 31.
Harriett, 30.
Three children shown: Caroline 10, Charles 8, John 1.
Enlisted at Norwich for "unlimited service" on the 31st of March 1851.
Age: 19.
Height: 5' 8".
Trade: Plumber.
Appearance: Fresh complexion. Grey eyes. Dk brown hair.
Tried and imprisoned by a District Court-martial at Brighton on the 1st of July 1852:
"having deserted from the 17th Lancers at Hounslow [another source states Woolwich] on the 14th of September 1851 and that he not having rejoined, until brought back under escort on the 1st of July 1852".
He was sentenced by a District Court-martial on the 7th of July to 56 days imprisonment with hard labour, the whole of which, with the exception of 15 days, was inflicted.
Wounded in action at Balaclava and sent to Scutari on the 26th of October 1854.
The official "Casualty Roll" in the "London Gazette" wrongly shows him (named as Charles "Aldows") as "Killed".
Invalided to England aboard the "Harbinger" on the 10th of January 1855 and sent from the Chatham Invalid Depot to Norwich on the 3Oth of June, "On furlo, pending discharge."
Discharged from Chatham Invalid Depot on the 24th of July 1855:
"Unfit for further service. Gun-shot fracture of the metacarpal bone of right forefinger and metacarpal bone of corresponding thumb and anchylosis of the thumb and impaired use of fingers from a gun-shot wound received at Balaclava."
Conduct and character: "good". Not in possession of any Good Conduct badges.
Service to count, 2 years 243 days.
From this it would appear that he lost the whole of his previous service following his conviction for desertion.
Awarded a pension of 9d. per day.
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasps for Alma, Balaclava, Sebastopol, and the Turkish medal.
Attended the first Balaclava Banquet in 1875.
Member of the Balaclava Commemoration Society in 1879.
Aldous was Secretary to the Balaclava Commemoration Society in 1879. His address at this time was 28, Coldbath Square, Clerkenwell, London, W.C.
In a letter to the Eastern Daily Press at Norwich on the 4th of February 1885, he wrote:
"I was for several years Secretary to the Balaclava Commemoration Society and compiled the rolls of the true survivors of the Charge from each Regiment which took part and all are personally known to me."
We can assume that he was the Secretary from the raising of the Society [date?], since an account and letter book once belonging to James Wightman of the 17th Lancers shows that, at a meeting held on the 29th of November 1879, the 6th of the "Rules for the future guidance of the Society" and submitted by the President to the Committee and approved was "That each member shall be informed that in consequence of Mr. Aldous having resigned the Secretaryship, all correspondence with the Society shall in future be through the Committee".
He was present at the Annual Dinner in 1890 [PB: also, presumably, in 1875?]
Charles Aldous was one of a number of Crimean War veterans from the Army and Navy who appeared in the procession for the Lord Mayor's Show that took place on the 9th of November 1890. Aldous is shown travelling in the 14th carriage in the procession, along with Brennan, Mugg, and Mullins, also of the 17th. [RM]
He appears in a line drawing in the Balaclava Banquet commemorative issue of the Illustrated London News, at the time of the Dinner on the 30th of October 1875, and also in a photograph taken at the Annual Dinner in 1890. (There are copies of both in the 17th Lancer file.)
1861 Census
Cold Bath Square, Clerkenwell.
Charles Aldous, 27, Warden of House of Correction, born Norwich.
Mary A., 25.
1871 Census
Middlesex House Of Correction, Holborn.
Charles Aldous, 38, Warder of the Prison, Officer of Prison on Cold Bath Fields.
__________
28, Cold Bath Square.
Mary A. Aldous, 35, Machinist, born Norwich.
Death registered
Mary Ann Aldous [1st wife], aged 42 years, September Quarter 1879, Holborn.
Marriage registered [2nd]
Charles Aldous married Alice Sims [2nd wife], March Quarter 1881, Pancras.
1881 Census
Charles Aldous is shown as aged 48, married, a Prison Warder, born in Norfolk.
His wife, Alice, 47, born in St. James's parish, Westminster, was living at 28, Cold Bath Square, Clerkenwell.
A W.S. Aldous, aged 38 years, born at Norwich, Norfolk, with his wife and family were also living at the same address. He too was a Prison Warder. He could possibly have been a brother, or other family relation.
The notorious Coldbath Fields Prison (also known as the Middlesex House of Correction, or the "Steel" — a corruption of "Bastille") was built in 1794 on a swamp near Mount Pleasant between what is now Rosebery Avenue and Farringdon Road in Clerkenwell. (The "Mount Pleasant" itself is thought to be an ironic name for an immense rubbish heap that once stood there.) The intention was to house prisoners in separate cells, to reduce moral "contamination".
Robert Southey and Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote of the jail (in "The Devil's Thoughts" [or "Devil's Walk"], 1835):
"As he went through Coldbath Fields he saw
A solitary cell;
"The Devil was pleased, for it gave him a hint,
For improving his prisons in hell."
In spite of several additions to the buildings, the numbers of inmates soon grew too great for isolation. The Report of the Inspector of Prisons for 1861, when Aldous was working here:
"speaks of the Coldbath Fields cells as too crowded and badly ventilated, the prisoners being sometimes 700 or 800 in excess of the number of cells, and sleeping either in hammocks slung too close together in dormitories, or, still worse, on the floors of workshops, only a short time before emptied of the working inmates." [Source: "Coldbath Fields and Spa Fields", Old and New London: Volume 2 (1878), pp. 298-306. ( http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=45101 (accessed 26 April 2014).]
The prison was also characterised by a strict practice of the "Silent Associative System" (inmates mixed but "all intercommunication, by word, gesture, or sign, was prohibited">, hard physical exercise, and work on a huge treadmill. Some sources claim this ingenious device ground flour but Mayhew and Binney say its only function was to uselessly "grind the wind" (p.300), with predictable effects on the men's morale.
Another Coldbath warder who had served in the Light Brigade was 1584 Nathan Henry, 11th Hussars.
And there were prisoners too: for example, 358 Ebenezer Brown, 17th Lancers, who was sentenced by a regimental court martial to six months' imprisonment in Cold Bath Military Prison, 17th of October 1833 — 16 of March 1834, for having "Deserted" on the 18th of September 1833.]
The prison was demolished in 1889 and what is now the Mount Pleasant Royal Mail Sorting Office built on the site.
At some point he became "Superintendent of the Laundry" at St. Anne's Home. This was most probably "St. Anne's House", a charitable institution for the parish church of St. Trinity [Holy Trinity?] district, situated at 6, Old Town, Clapham, London.
Died on the 12th of March 1891 at 1, Albert Terrace, Mill Lane, Streatham, London, aged 58 years. The cause of his death was "Broncho-pneumonia. Asphyxia". His widow, Alice, was present at, and the informant of, his death. There is a copy of his death certificate in the "Certificates" file.
Death registered
Charles Aldous, aged 58 years, March Quarter 1891, Wandsworth.
He was buried in a common grave, No. 12464, Square 58, in the South Metropolitan Cemetery, Norwood, London, on the 17th of March, one of 15 interred in the same grave-space. No memorial stone was erected. The actual site is not now identifiable, but see a photograph of the grave-area, in the 17th Lancer file.
Census information for 1841, 1861 & 1871, and registrations of deaths and of Aldous's second marriage, kindly provided by Chris Poole.