Born at Kirkmahoe, Dumfries, Scotland, c.1830.
Enlisted into the 83rd Foot at Liverpool on the 10th of August 1853.
No Regimental number was allocated.
Age: 23.
Height: 5' 7".
Trade: Joiner.
Appearance: Fair complexion. Grey eyes. Lt. brown hair.
Discharged at Chatham on the 28th of November 1853.
Purchased his discharge after 118 days service, paying the regulated fee of £18.
Re-enlisted into the 11th Hussars at London on the 8th of December 1853.
Taken prisoner-of-war at Balaclava after being wounded in the Charge.
He was exchanged at Odessa, rejoining the regiment in the Crimea on the 28th of October 1855.
Next of kin (in 1854): Father, Walter Dryden, living in Dumfries.
[PB: But elsewhere there are claims that Dryden was his mother's name.]
Invalided to England aboard the "Salandia" on the 23rd of January 1856.
Finally discharged from Chatham Invalid Depot on the 20th of May 1856 as:
"Disabled from active service from vertigo and headaches consequent on the sabre wounds on the back of the head received on the 25th of October 1854. Received also on the same day, a sabre wound on the upper part of the left arm and the bridge of the nose, 26 lance wounds of back, the right side of the body and the right thigh. From the sabre wound at the back of the head there occurred an exfoliation of a portion of the occipital bone, which was fractured."
There is a copy of a report made by Robert Cooper, the Surgeon of the 4th Dragoon Guards, regarding the nature of the wounds received by John Dryden at Balaclava, taken from the Illustrated London News for the 9th of February 1856, in the 11th Hussar file.
TENACITY OF LIFE
ANOTHER CRIMEAN HERO(From the London News)
We have been requested to give insertion to the following communication:
Hyder Pacha Barracks, Scutari, Jan. 9, 1856.
Dear Sir, — I have long intended to send you the particulars of the case of Private John Dryden, 11th Hussars, who received thirty-one wounds in one day. It has interest connected with it on account of the large number inflicted upon the man within a few hours.
He was exchanged at Odessa in October last, and is now at his duty in the Crimea. He is not in the receipt of any pension. [emphasis in original] You will doubtless agree with me in considering his escape almost miraculous, and that the soldier is deserving of some compensation for his wounds.
I am indebted to Surgeon Crosse, of the 11th Hussars, for his kindness in allowing me to examine the man in his presence. My worthy friend will corroborate, if necessary, the statements I am about to bring to your notice.
Believe me to remain,
Yours truly,
Robert Cooper, Surgeon 4th Dragoon Guards.
G. J. Guthrie, Esq.
Outline of the case of Private John Dryden, 11th Hussars, taken prisoner after the Light Cavalry charge at Balaclava on the 25th October, 1854: Aged 25; Service, 5 years; No. 1617; Scotchman; Dumfriesshire
At the Light Cavalry charge he was cut off and surrounded by about twenty Russian Lancers and Dragoons. He received several wounds before he was dismounted. When on the ground was pierced by lances. He was left for dead.
An hour or so after the engagement had terminated some Cossacks came on foot, and speared him. He made signs of life while they so employed themselves; they would not desist. At the time he was weak and faint from the loss of a good deal of blood. When night came on he was placed in a bullock-wagon, to be conveyed to an adjacent village, where be remained about 48 hours.
Was then forwarded to Simpheropol, where he reached at the expiration of two days. His wounds were not attended to, or dressed, by anybody for four days alter their infliction.
On his arrival at Simpheropol they ware washed and dressed, in a manner, by a Russian soldier. In a fortnight after an American surgeon came to the hospital and personally dressed every man's wound. The Russian surgeon had previously overlooked the English altogether.
He remained three months at Simpheropol; was then marched up country, being at the time quite well. After proceeding 300 versts was taken ill with fever, which laid him up for three months. He walked from twelve to thirty versts every day; had plenty to eat on the road, being allowed eightpence per diem to find himself.
Was exchanged at Odessa in October last, and rejoined his regiment in the Crimea on the 26th of the month, having been absent one year.
The following table will afford some idea of the nature and extent of the wounds:
Head and Face: 6 wounds (all sword)
Trunk, spinal region: 15 lance wounds
Trunk, lateral region: 2 lance wounds
Arms: 5 wounds (4 lance, 1 sword)
Legs: 3 lance wounds
Total 31 wounds (24 lance, 7 sword).
REMARKS
(a) Two severe cuts (followed by depressions), each about two inches in length, in tbe region of the vertex and occiput; three slight superficial scalp wounds in the same vicinity; one cut through the nasal bones.
(b) Twelve large knee wounds, and three small ones, among the spinal and lumbar muscles; the cicatrices varying in size from a sixpence to half-a-crown.
(c) One large and one small lance wound on the right side of the body.
(d) One severe sword-cut at the insertion of the left deltoid, cicatrix 31/2 inches in length; three lance wounds on the right elbow; one on the back of the left elbow.
(e) Two on the right thigh and one on the left nates [buttock].
He suffered most from the wounds on the head and at the insertion of the left deltoid; they were three months healing. It took two months to cicatrise the wounds on the back.
He was informed by his comrades who had been in hospital with him at Simpheropol that he had been delirious whilst under treatment. Portions of bone came away from the wounds on the head — one piece as large as a sixpence.
Liquor affects him sooner, and in smaller quantities, than it used to do; has slight giddiness now and then for two days at a time; suffers from singing in the ears occasionally; intellect at time confused for half an hour.
With the above exceptions he enjoys good health; has perfect use of his left arm; can do everything with it as before; raise it freely over his head. Cannot remember whether he had a cough after the wounds were inflicted; has no recollection of spitting blood; neither did he pass any to his knowledge,
Robert Cooper
Surgeon, 4th Dragoon Guards.
[Source:
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/printArticleJpg/65986848/5?print=n
(accessed 24.1.2014).]
Served 2 years 247 days.
In Turkey and the Crimea: 1 year 6 months. Former service in the 83rd Foot allowed to count.
Conduct and character: "good". Not in possession of any Good Conduct badges.
Awarded a pension of 12d. per day. Living in the Ayr Pension District on discharge, but in the Carlisle District from the 1st of July 1860.
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasps for Alma, Balaclava and Sebastopol, and the Turkish medal.
Extract from the Dumfries Recorder [unknown date]:
"The following account tells the story of a man who received no less than 31 wounds at the battle of Balaclava and had been taken prisoner by the Russians and recovered. This was Mr John Dryden, or rather John Dagleish — he having enlisted under his mother's name — and he having been discharged from the army because of the nature of his wounds, is now residing in his native parish of Kirkmahoe.
He is a intelligent and good-looking man of some six and twenty years, After landing in the Crimea he was engaged in the cavalry skirmish which took place before the battle of the Alma, and after that engagement, in which the cavalry were unable to share, he marched on towards Balaclava.
On the morning of the remarkable battle of Balaclava, he witnessed the repulse of the Russian cavalry by the Highlanders under Sir Colin Campbell, He formed one of the Light Brigade who were madly ordered to charge the Russian guns and troops on that day.
About two and a half miles of ground were gone over in that charge and the troops kept in line until they came within range of the flank guns, which played with such awful effect upon them, a single ball breaking the legs of several horses and throwing the ranks into confusion.
As the rapidly thinned horsemen made up to the artillery they cut down the gunners and Dagleish was one of those who reached, unharmed, the artillery in front, which was speedily rendered powerless. Beyond this, he rode for half a mile in pursuit of the retreating Russian cavalry who, on observing the small number of their assailants, turned and gave battle.
A desperate hand-to-hand fight ensued, during the course of which he was terribly wounded, but in spite of which, with his comrades, he succeeded in cutting his way out and had ridden back nearly to the position from which the regiment had started when his horse was shot under him and had this latter misfortune not befallen him he would have escaped, but although able to sit on his horse, after the fall he became so weak from loss of blood that he could no longer walk or stand and for about four hours he lay in great agony, and was then conveyed by the Russians in a bullock cart to an adjacent village and then in the course of a couple of days to Simpheropol.
Here, after some delay, his wounds were dressed by an American surgeon and thanks to a good constitution and a sound state of body and which, in the opinion of his medical attendant, had saved him, he ultimately recovered. After the expiration of some three months in the hospital he was marched 1,500 miles up the country and being attacked by fever he had not fully recovered from this for another three months.
On being exchanged at Odessa in October of 1855 he rejoined his regiment in the Crimea and returned to Britain in May last. Of the men taken prisoner by the Russians at Balaclava only twenty survived.
He was, on the whole, well treated by the Russians and on returning to Britain he was placed in the Convalescent Depot at Chatham until discharged with a pension of 1/4d. a day. On one of her gracious Majesty's visits to Chatham the remarkable nature of his case was mentioned to the Queen, who entered into conversation with him.
He was presented with a silk handkerchief embroidered by the Queen's own hand and she offered him a sum of money or a situation. Mr. Dryden, like the sensible Scotsman that he is, preferred the latter, and he is now awaiting the fulfillment of the Royal promise. In addition to the handkerchief, preserved with much pride, Mr. Dagliesh also has the Crimean medal with the three clasps for Alma, Balaclava and Sebastopol."
He is shown in the Pension Books as having died in the Carlisle Pension District on the 22nd of December 1869. However, this date of death implies that he could not possibly have been a member of the Balaclava Commemoration Society in 1877. However, Dryden's name (as "J. Drydon") was indeed on the 1877 list of members of the Balaclava Commemoration Society, but not on the 1879 list. As he obviously rode in the Charge, his name is likely to have been omitted because of his prior death.
There is a copy of a photograph of John Dryden, taken most probably at the Invalid Depot at Chatham, and by Queen Victoria's wish, in the 11th Hussar file. The original of this is in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle.
"Seen by the Queen at Chatham. John Dryden. 11th Hussars. Wounded in the charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava 25 Sept 1854...cuts on his head and on the...and was taken prisoner. In hospital 3 weeks [?] at Simpheropol, then taken 1,500 miles [?] up the country. Exchanged at Odessa." [some words difficult to decipher at this resolution] "
[PB: The following needs sorting out.]
He is shown in the Pension Books as having died in the Carlisle Pension District on the 22nd of December 1869.
(EJB: There is something odd in the fact that the St. Catherine's House records show only a "John Dryden" as dying in the Liverpool District, aged 56 years, during the October-December quarter of 1869.) In 1998 it was known that the John Dryden shown as dying in the Liverpool District, died in the Liverpool Workhouse on the 10th of December 1869 at the age of 56 years, from bronchitis, was a Hatter by occupation, and could not possibly have been John Dryden of the 11th Hussars.)
A "Joseph Dryden" is recorded as dying in the Whitehaven District during the January-February quarter of 1870, aged 43 years. The local newspaper, the Whitehaven News, records in its "Deaths" column:
"Dryden — On the 3rd inst, at the Infirmary, Howall Street, Whitehaven, Mr Joseph Dryden, a labourer, aged 43 years."
EJB: From his recorded age on his original enlistment John Dryden would have been 39 years of age at this time and from the nature of the wounds which caused him to be discharged from the Army the occupation of labourer would hardly have seemed suitable. There is, of course, the possibility that his death was recorded under his real name of Dagleish, but this has not yet been confirmed and in neither of the two regiments in which he served has there been any reference to his name being other than Dryden.
Queen Victoria and the royal family made their first visit to a military hospital on 3 March 1855 to meet some of the wounded soldiers recently returned from the Crimea. There were at least eight visits to Chatham, Portsmouth and Woolwich hospitals, with the last one in April 1856. The Queen commissioned photographic portraits of several of the men to whom she spoke on these occasions. The visits and the commission were reported in the press, but the photographs themselves remained private. Corporal McMahon served with the 1st (the Royal) Regiment. He was shot through the neck and his shoulder was fractured. Private Dryden of the 11th Hussars was wounded during the Charge of the Light Brigade on 25 October 1855 after which he was taken prisoner by the Russians. Queen Victoria met both men at Chatham. She subsequently wrote in her Journal of Dryden: 'Private John Dryden of the 11th Hussars, who had received 31 wounds, 26 of which lance wounds, the remainder, being sabre cuts, received at Balaklava, where he was completely surrounded by Russians & taken prisoner, being for a year in prison at Simpheropol. He only suffers from the cuts in his head & has a scar across the bridge of his nose' (16 April 1856).
https://www.rct.uk/collection/themes/exhibitions/roger-fentons-photographs-of-the-crimea/the-queens-gallery-buckingham-palace/private-john-dryden?language=zh-hans