Born c.1833. Place unknowm
Enlisted at London on the 1st of October 1851.
Age: 18.
Height: 5' 6".
Trade: None shown.
Embarked for the Crimea aboard the H.T. "Echunga" on the 15th [?] of April 1854.< [Arrived at Constantinople 20th May.]/p>
At Scutari from the 26th of October — 14th of December 1854.
From Private to Corporal: 2nd of March 1856.
Reduced to Private, by a Regimental Court-martial, on the 28th of September 1856.
Shown as "Absent" from the 1st of October 1856.
Can find no further trace to 1879.
[PB: Lawrence Crider reports George Clarke was aboard the Echunga from 15th April 1854 & for the 2nd Muster of the 2nd quarter, and in a Letter Party for the 3rd Muster. In the 4th quarter of 1854 he was at Scutari 26th October to the 14th December. In the 3rd quarter of 1855, he was at Baidar Valley for the 1st Muster and in Hospital 3rd Muster. (In Search..., p.140.)]
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasps for Alma and Sebastopol.
[PB: Why not Balaclava? Is it because, if he was already "At Scutari" on the 26th October, he couldn't have been at Balaclava the day before? But what if he was not "at" but "on his way" to Scutari? And since it seems he was "absent" on 1st of October (a few days after he had been court-martialled) and never accounted for since (i.e. presumably he'd deserted), he would not have tried to get his medal.]
PB: "Is George Clarke" the "GC" who wrote interesting letters (published in a Bristol newspaper) to his MP from the Crimea, including an account of the Charge? (Copies of these letters are in the Accounts database.).
GC is described as a "private in the 8th Hussars" who "Enlisted, much to the annoyance of his parents, who are very respectable tradespeople [in Bristol]" . The letters were sent to Right Hon. Francis Henry FitzHardinge Berkeley, MP for Bristol and published in the Bristol Mercury.
It is curious that GC deserted shortly after he was court-martialled (September 1856) then utterly disappeared.
Was "George Clarke" on any case an alias? Notice how little information there is about him at enlistment — including no birthplace shown.
If "George Clarke" was an alias, perhaps this might at least have allowed him to return to Britain and avoid charges of desertion.
I have asked Mike Manson for his thoughts about who this Bristol-based person "GC" might be.
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