Born in St. Martin's parish, Westminster, London, c.1829.
Enlisted at Hounslow on the 21st of March 1848.
Age: 19.
Height: 5' 7.
Trade: Labourer.
Rode in the Charge with "C" Troop.
From Private to Corporal: 1st of October 1855.
Discharged, "by claim", from Canterbury on the 24th of November 1860.
Conduct: "very good". In possession of two Good Conduct badges.
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasps for Alma, Balaclava, Inkerman and Sebastopol, and the Turkish medal.
Attended the first Balaclava Banquet in 1875.
Member of the Balaclava Commemoration Society in 1879.
Present at the Annual Dinners in 1890, 1892, 1893, 1897 and 1899.
In later life he received help from the "Robert's" Fund to a total of £99/16/6d.
His portrait appeared in the Illustrated London News for the 30th of October 1875, and also an account of his experiences during the Charge. He also appears in a photograph taken after the 1890 Dinner in 1890. (See copies of these in the 11th Hussar file.)
[RM: A number of Crimean War veterans from the Army and Navy appeared in the procession for the Lord Mayor's Show that took place on the 9th of November 1890. These survivors travelled in open topped carriages, which contained four people each, accompanied by the bands of the Coldstream Guards, Scots Guards, and the 2nd Life Guards and pipes of the 1st Royal Warwickshire regiment. Eleven such carriages carried men of the Light Brigade under the banners of "Survivors of the Charge at Balaklava" and "Battle of Balaklava Heroes", notably included at their head, Trumpeters Landfried 17th Lancers and Perkins 11th Hussars. An especially printed programme for this event lists all these men and Buckton is shown travelling in the 13th carriage in the procession.]
After leaving the Army, Buckton became a "Viewer" at the Government Clothing Stores at Pimlico, London. This was an organisation set up to improve the quality of the stores supplied to the Services following complaints about the shoddy materials, etc., sent to the Crimea by unscrupulous contractors.
From the 1881 Census returns he was living at No. 73 Cumberland Street, St. George's, Westminster, a Viewer, (Army employed) aged 51 years and born at Westminster, London, with his wife, Martha, born in the parish of St. George's, Westminster, London.
[RM: The 1891 Census shows him living at 74 Cumberland Street, St George's, still as a "Viewer, Stores". Martha his wife was still with him. His father in law Edward Dickenson is also shown in the household.]
The 1901 Census shows him as John Charles Buckton, a "Cloth viewer OD" living at 50 Westmoreland Street, Belgrave.
Died at 1, Wandsworth Road, Vauxhall, South Lambeth, London, on the 17th of January 1906, and was buried in a private grave in Westminster Cemetery, Hanwell, London, W7, on the 22nd. This was No. 1724 in Compartment "O" and shown as "Re-opened grave, Dickenson", a sum of £1/19/0 being paid for this. The GRO records show a "John Charles Buckton" as dying in the Lambeth District of London during the January-March quarter of 1906, aged 79 years.
His gravestone by 1986 was very much weathered and the inscriptions can only be partly deciphered. Of the total of six persons interred in the plot, four are of the Dickinson family (between 1882 and 1899). Only the later inscriptions can be made out to any degree — "In loving memory of Martha Buckton, died — of July 1905 and John Charles Buckton, husband of the above, who died 17th of January 1906, aged 79 years." There would appear to be no reference to his ever having been in the Charge. It would seem possible that his wife, Martha, was a Dickinson before her marriage.
His wife, Martha, was buried on the 5th of July 1905, aged 63, being brought from No. 4 Mortlake Road, Ilford. The first interment was Harriet Dickenson who was buried on the 2nd of January 1882, aged 62 years. She was brought from 72 Cumberland Street, Pimlico, the first registered owner of the plot being an Edward Dickinson of the same address. At his death in June of 1894 ownership passed to Martha Buckton, (then living at 34 St. Swinards Street, Pimlico, then to her husband, and finally to a Martha Woodward, of Pyranley Street, Walham Green. (See picture of this gravestone in the 11th Hussar file.)
In his will, made on the 7th of January 1906 (not long before his death) he left the sum of £443/10/4d. (In leaving this amount one wonders why he had need to call upon the "Robert's" Balaclava Fund.)
In it he said, "I have two bank accounts, one in the Post Office Savings Bank in Charlwood Place, Pimlico and one in the Birkbeck Bank, Chancery Lane, WC1." He made bequests of "£40 to my brother, James Buckton, of 6 Cadogan Street, Chelsea, £40 to my sister, Jane Hannah Walters of 12 Francis Street, Chelsea," appointed his executors, Alfred and William Bertie Phillips,
"to receive my Prudential Assurance money, my gold watch and chain and pendants, the medals I received for my services in the Crimean War I give to my nephew William Bertie Phillips, to my nephew Alfred Phillips and my niece Rebecca Phillips, all the moneys found in my name or found in my possession, or owing to me to be divided equally between them both, all of the furniture, chattels and effects, real and personal of whatever description found, to be theirs absolutely, but should they not survive me everything is to be equally divided amongst their seven children."
The witnesses were George Chapman, (Junior) of 7 Coniston Street, Borough, E6 (Canteen Steward) and Frederick James Pierce of Church Street, Hornchurch Essex, (Drayman.) The will was proved at London on the 15th of February 1906 by William Bertie Phillips, a Brewer's Stoker.