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

Last amended 3.6.11. Minor edits 14.4.14.

IN PROGRESS — NOT FOR PUBLICATION

1311, Private Joseph BANKS — 17th Lancers

Birth & early life

Born in the parish of St. Martin's in the Fields, London.

Enlistment

Enlisted at London on the 13th of September 1854.

Age: 18.

Height: 5' 8".

Trade: Shoemaker.

Appearance: Fair complexion. Hazel eyes. Dk. brown hair.

Service

Embarked on the 28th of May and joined the Regiment in the Crimea on the 20th of June 1855.

Embarked for India from Cork aboard the S.S. "Great Britain" on the 8th of October 1857.

The July-September 1858 muster rolls show no particular entry for him during the first two musters, and being "Sick at Kirkee" during September.

On passage to England on the 22nd of December 1858.

Discharge & pension

Discharged, "Invalided", from Chatham Invalid Depot on the 18th of July 1859 as " Unfit for further service — from a rupture, resulting from military service."

Conduct: "good". In possession of one Good Conduct badge.

Served 4 years 140 days.

In Turkey and the Crimea, 10 months. In the East Indies, 1 year 3 days.

Awarded a "Special Pension" of 6d. per day on discharge.

Pension increased to 9d. per day from the 27th of April 1878.

Granted a "Special Pension" and increased to 15d. per day from the 2nd of May 1901 and again recommended for a further increase to 18d. per day from the 9th of January 1903.

Medals & commemorations

Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasp for Sebastopol, and the Turkish medal.

Can find no trace on the Mutiny medal roll.

Documents confirm only the award of the Crimean medal.

Life after service

He went to Brazil in 1862 and had not returned to England by 1875. Permission was given for his pension to accumulate during his stay abroad.

The 1881 Census showsa man of this name as living at No. 30 White Cross Place, Shoreditch, London, an Engineer's Labourer, aged 46, born in the Strand, London, with his wife, Elizabeth, aged 41, born at Fisher Vine, Scotland. There were 3 children in the family aged from 14 to 8, the eldest being an Errand Boy, the others Scholars.

[RM: The 1901 Census shows him as a "Labourer, Building trade" living in St Paul's, Deptford, London.]

Death & burial

Died sometime after 1906.


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