Service
Slightly wounded in action at Balaclava, 25th October 1854.
Sent to Scutari on the 27th of October 1854.
On board a Hospital Ship, 5th of January — 24th of March 1855.
Invalided to England, 23rd of March 1855.
At the Invalid Depot from the 28th of April 1855.
Discharge & pension
Discharged to "Out-Pension" from Chatham Invalid Depot on the 16th of October 1855, "being found unfit for further military service from Pulmonia Disease (Chronic bronchitis) and Dyspepsia."
Served 20 years 32 days, to count.
Conduct: "good". In possession of two Good Conduct badges.
Aged 39 years 6 months on discharge.
Granted a pension of 10d. per day.
Death & burial
John Brown died in the Belfast Pension District on the 22nd of April 1860.
He was buried in Shankhill [PB: Shankhill or Shankill?] Road Cemetery, Belfast. A memorial stone erected in Plot "C" bears the inscription:
"In loving memory of John Brown, late of the 17th Lancers, who died 22nd April 1860, aged 44 years. Also of Agnes Doran, who died 13th of June 1908, aged 70 years. Erected by his son, Captain John Brown."
His headstone is made of slate grey granite, the top portion bearing the regimental badge of the skull and cross-bones of the 17th Lancers. (See photographs of this stone in the 17th Lancer file.)
Agnes Doran was the sister of John Brown's wife, Ann Jane (nee Doran). [Ann There is some possibility that John Brown was not actually interred in this grave but that the stone only commemorates him.
[EJB: Apparently no records now exist for the Shankhill cemetery apart from recorded inscriptions on the remaining stones.
This cemetery has been a burial site for several centuries, but none of the headstones appear to date beyond the 18th century.
The last burial in the cemetery was in 1934. In 1958 the Belfast Corporation took it over with a view to converting it into a garden of rest. In the course of removal the great majority of stones were broken up, 1310 of these being recorded (up to the date of 1860 on the original inscription). Only 174 remain standing, the others all being placed against the outside walls in a numbered sequence.
In the 1960s it was decided to turn the grave-yard into a pensioners' leisure garden, which caused the removal of the majority of the headstones, only the more interesting remaining, which probably saved the memorial in question.]
Further information
In 1990 Mr. S. Bracegirdle of Belfast provided the information that John Brown was his maternal great-grandfather through a son, Richard, born circa 1860. Richard married Mary E. Nelson in August 1889 and died in February 1898. (He too was buried in Shankhill [PB: Shankhill or Shankill?] Cemetery.)
John Brown's wife, shown as Mary Jane in the Census Returns [PB: date?], was born in Monaghan and later lived at 3, Elm Street, Belfast.
Mr Bracegirdle also provided a photograph of another son, Captain John Brown, together with Richard and William Bunting. (See copy in the 17th Lancer file. [FIND & ADD])
Captain John Brown was born in Belfast in 1857, and after passing his examinations in 1890 was employed by the Lord Line. He commanded a number of ships, mainly to the Americas. One of them, the Belfast, was wrecked in March 1895.
In the London Gazette, 22nd of February 1918, Commander John Brown R.N.R. is shown as "Awarded the Croix de Guerre by the President of the French Republic for distinguished services rendered during the War". Seven others, all R.N. or R.N.R., received this award at the same time. (He is not shown on any roll as receiving any other World War One medals, so he probably did not serve abroad in any capacity. However, a press cutting from an American paper at the time of Captain John Brown's sister's death in 1938 stated that:
"A brother, Captain John Brown of the Royal Navy, now deceased, distinguished himself during World War One when he aided in the defeat of the Turkish Navy in the Dardenelles Straits."
The last entry on the Captain's Register sheets for him is "St Aubin". (Tug) — in January-February 1920.
According to the 1911 Census, Captain John Brown had five children, and was residing in Belfast up to circa 1911, when the family moved to Southampton. It is believed that John Brown's widow, Mary (Ann) Jane, went with them.
Two of his sons were killed-in-action during the First World War: Hugh died on the 31st of July 1917, and his brother, John, who had enlisted on the same day as No. 240283, died in Mesopotamia while serving as a Corporal in the Hampshire Regiment, 1/4th (Territorial Forces) Batt. The names of both men are recorded on the War Memorial in West Park at Southampton. The parents were living at 5, Bond Road, Bitterne, Southampton, at the time.
Mr. Bracegirdle also provided a photograph of Captain John Brown in naval uniform and pictures of his two sons, which appeared in the Belfast Telegraph, 21st of December 1917.
The photographs of the gravestone of 455 John Brown were also provided by him. (See copies of the photographs of Captain John Brown and the newspaper photographs in the 17th Lancer file.)
Somerset House records show John Brown, of 5, Bond Road, Bitterne, Southampton, as dying on the 19th of July 1926 at the Hulse Road Nursing Home, Hulse Road, Southampton. Probate was granted to Elizabeth Brown, widow, on the 23rd of October 1926. Effects: £354/7/-. He was buried in Southampton (Old) Cemetery, Plot D181/151, aged 66 years, on the 22nd of July.
[PB: In September 2019, Gavin Bassie sent the EJBA a link to an article he had found online about John Brown. We are very grateful to him for getting in touch.]
BELFAST GRAVE OF A 17TH LANCER.
(Click on image to enlarge)
Trooper Sergeant John Brown buried in Shankill [sic] Road Garden of Rest, Belfast (picture) was one of those brave men of the 17th Lancers who charged with the Light Brigade against the assembled Russian guns at the Battle of Balaclava in 1854 in the Crimean War.
The Shankill Graveyard on Belfast's Shankill Road is one of the oldest burial grounds in the city as it is believed to have been used for burials for 1,000 years. There was once a 1306 church (14th Century) on the site but no trace is now visible. It is said that about one million people are buried here in this space, including those who died destitute, had some form of disease and those who succumbed to the Black Death when it raged through the city.
(Click on image to enlarge)
The ground where they lie was never opened again as it was feared the plague may escape. I remember visiting the cemetery with my Grandmother in the 1980's when it was overgrown, headstones broken and metal railings collapsed and the pathways overgrown so they were just a narrow track around the burial ground which were overshadowed by old tall trees. It has since been renovated into a garden of rest and peace with some of the old headstones arranged around the perimeter walls and a few readable upright ones scattered about the green spaces.
(Click on image to enlarge)
One of those upright headstones reads, "In Loving Memory of John Brown, Late of the 17th Lancers, Who Died 22nd June 1860. Aged 44 Years." It is topped by a carving of a skull and crossbones underneath which is written "Death or Glory". John Brown was born in Mitchelstown, Co. Cork to Ulster-Scots parents where he was a tailor before he enlisted in the 17th Lancers of the British army about 1835.
As many people know the "Charge of the Light Brigade" took place at the Battle of Balaclava, 25th October 1854 during the Crimean War, and has been told and retold in several books and movies immortalising the famous, if fateful, charge forever. Earlier in that day, 800 men of the 17th Lancers, Light Brigade made a successful charge on 3,000 light horsemen of the Russian enemy and drove them from the battlefield.
One of those was John Brown who was slightly wounded in the charge. On the 27th December 1854 John Brown was a patient in the Scutari Hospital and by 31st March 1855 he was invalided back to England. Just over 5 years later Private John Brown passed away in Belfast and was laid to rest in the Shankill Graveyard, Belfast and bringing an historic link to one of the most famous battles of our past.
[Source: Clan Carruthers International Society blog: Belfast Grave of a 17th Lancer, published 3 November 2018 (accessed 5.0.2019). The sentence "Earlier that day..." is presumably a reference to the Charge of the Heavy Brigade, which did not involve the 17th Lancers.]
