Born in Manchester.
Enlisted at Manchester on the 14th of November 1854.
Age: 18.
Height: 5' 6".
Trade: Printer.
Joined the regiment in the Crimea on the 25th of May 1855.
Transferred to the 7th Hussars at Aldershot on the 1st of August 1857. Regimental No. 83.
On Staff Employ. October 1863 — March 1864.
Died in India on the 20th of May 1864.
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasp for Sebastopol.
Mutiny medal with clasp for Lucknow.
Named as "Coldback" on the Sebastopol clasp roll, but as "Colbeck" on some muster rolls.
Served in the field in Oude, East Indies, from the 4th of February 1858 — 14th of May 1858, including the siege of Lucknow, 2-16 of March 1858.
Not recorded by Lummis and Wynn.
Died at Sealkote, India.
His group of medals, comprising of the Crimean medal, clasp for Sebastopol, with officially impressed naming to "James Colbeck. 7th Hussars.", the Indian Mutiny Medal, clasp for Lucknow, to "Jas.Coldbeck, 7th Hussars." and the Turkish Crimea, (British issue) and unnamed, was sold at a Dixon, Noonan and Webb auction on the 4th of April 20001 and is now known to be in an English collection. (0rriginally formed part of the collection belonging to the late John Cooper.) named to James Colbeck, )
There is no apparent reason why his Crimean medal is named to the 7th Hussars, there being no reference to a lost medal or another being issued to him at a later date.