1131, Private John DOYLE — 8th Hussars

Birth & early life

Born in Dublin.

In his "Memoirs" (there is a copy in the Memoirs file) John Doyle said that he had a brother serving in the 73rd Foot (The Black Watch) who sailed aboard the "Birkenhead" for the Cape in 1852 and was one of those who perished when the ship struck a rock off the coast of Africa. (A "Patrick Doyle" is shown as one of the men of the Regiment on the memorial erected in the Colonnade at Chelsea Royal Hospital. )

• Wikipedia: HMS Birkenhead:

"The number of personnel aboard is in some doubt, but an estimate of 638 was published in The Times. It is generally thought that the survivors comprised 113 soldiers (all ranks), 6 Royal Marines, 54 seamen (all ranks), 7 women, 13 children and at least one male civilian, but these numbers cannot be substantiated, as muster rolls and books were lost with the ship."

• NB. There are some very good photographs and frames from comics online.

Enlistment

Enlisted at Newbridge on the 22nd of February 1850.

Age: 22.

Height: 5' 8".

Trade: Servant.

Appearance: Fresh complexion. Grey eyes. Lt. brown hair.

Service

1851 Census

Preston Cavalry Barracks, Preston, Sussex.

John Doyle, Private, unmarried, 23, born Kings County, Birr.

[PB: Kings County is now County Offaly. Between 1620 and 1899 Birr was often referred to as Parsonstown, after local landlords the Parsons family.]

Present on duty at the 1851 Exhibition and also at the funeral of the Duke of Wellington in 1852.

Embarked for the Crimea aboard the HT "Wilson Kennedy" on the 2nd of May 1854.

Rode in the Charge, 25th October 1854.

[PB: October, 2014.]

"Hickabod" [horse]

In his memoir, Doyle mentions his "old friend...Hickabod" several times, with understandable pride:

"My horse got a bullet through his nose, above the noseband, which caused him to lose a great deal of blood, and every time he gave his head a chuck [?] the blood spurted over me...[p.17]

"Although my old friend (my horse) Hickabod had lost the deal of blood, there were none of the Russian cavalry could pass him, for if they could have got in front of me I should have been killed; but as they could not pass me, and being young, supple, and like an eel in the saddle, I could turn and twist as quick as lightning...[p.18]

When I got back no one knew me, for I was covered with blood from my head to my feet. My comrades knew the horse, but did not know who I was. Colonel Sewell called out to know who I was; and then told me to take my horse to the commissary officer (Mr Cruickshank) and shoot him! [is there an exclamation mark in the original?] He thought he was done for. I led him down to the commissary, but instead of shooting him, I got a quart of rum and bathed the wound on his nose with it, and in a few hours there was a fine healthy scale [?] over it.

The Colonel did not compel me to shoot him after he saw what I had done for him; and I was very glad of that, or I would as soon have lost my own life, as to have shot my horse, who had so gallantly carried me through the vicissitudes of that eventful but glorious day! [exclamation mark in the original?] The wound heals rapidly, and by the battle of Inkerman my horse was as well as ever. [p.20]

[PB: October, 2014.]

Orlando Figes cites a passage from Doyle's memoir to suggest there were "signs of disobedience" and "threats of insubordination" in the Light Brigade just before the Charge, which [may have?] influenced Lucan and Cardigan's interpretation of the message Nolan was carrying:

"The Light Brigade were not well pleased when they saw the Heavy Brigade charge and were not let go to their assistance. They stood up in the stirrups, and shouted 'Why are we kept here?' and at the same moment broke up and dashed back through our lines, for the purpose of following the Russian retreat, but they had got too far for us to overtake them."

Doyle also claims in his memoir that it was he who crept into the Russian lines and released more than 90 horses, but told nobody at the time. Farquharson 4LD in his memoir says it was a French Zouave who achieved this feat, and that it was 1247 Thomas Lovelock's "patriotic" horse "Donkey" who led them back to the British lines.

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

From Private to Corporal: 4th of June 1864.

Confined: 12th-15th of January. He was tried by a Regimental Court-martial and reduced to Private on the 1st of January 1866 [Check date].

Returned to England aboard the "St. Lawrence" and was discharged, "Second period of service expired", from Longford on the 2nd of December 1873.

Served 22 years 282 days. To live in Dublin.

Next of kin: Wife, Elizabeth Doyle.

They were on the "Married roll" of the regiment from the 5th of August 1864, and had three children by the 31st of March 1873.

Medals

Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasps for Alma, Balaclava, Inkerman, and Sebastopol.

Mutiny medal with clasp for Central India.

Served at Kotah.

Commemorations

His memoirs, entitled A Descriptive Account of the Famous Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava, were published in Manchester in 1877.

Member of the Balaclava Commemoration Society in 1877 and 1879. His name is included on the October 1890 Balaclava Dinner list.

Further detailed medal information archived

Life after service

He was living in Liverpool in 1875.

He would also appear to have served, probably in a Yeomanry unit, as the Salford Street Directory records.

The first entry, for 1876, shows a John Doyle, a Drill Instructor, of 12, Darley Street.

That for 1877-78 showed the same details, but in 1879-84 he was living at 44, Ellesmere Street, and from 1885-87 at 27, Platt Street. Nothing can be found after these dates.

See the record of 1151, James Hefferon, 8th Hussars, for a copy of a letter which John Doyle wrote to the Army and Navy Gazette in 1891 doubting Hefferon's claim to have ridden in the Charge.

Death & burial

Died at Liverpool on the 14th of August 1892.

Death registered

John Doyle, aged 62, September Quarter 1892, Liverpool.

Information provided in 1992 by Mr Maurice Rigby of Liverpool shows that John Doyle was buried in Anfield Cemetery from the Royal Infirmary on the 16th of August 1892, aged 62 years. He was interred in a public grave, Section 4 — Grave No. 794, Roman Catholic Division.

A picture of his grave-area was also provided by him as well as a photograph of the hospital in which he died (now closed).

ADD PHOTOGRAPHS

There are copies of both in the 8th Hussar file, that of his grave being pictured as with his head close to the flowers in the centre of the picture.

Mr Rigby also passed on a copy of a letter that had appeared in the Liverpool Daily Mercury of the 19th of August 1892, reporting John Doyle's death and funeral:

"He was One of the Light Brigade."

To the Editors of the Liverpool Mercury.

Gentlemen, — The remains of John Doyle, late 11th Hussars, one of those brave men whom Tension has immortalised, and of whom "all the world wondered", were this day escorted to the grave from Liverpool Infirmary, where he passed away, forgotten.

An effort was made to ensure this veteran a military funeral, but England, who is so proud of her heroes, allowed this representative of her famous Light Brigade to be interred without ceremony.

As I gazed upon the placid features of this dead warrior and saw his remains hurried off without a tear of regret, I thought of the ingratitude of my country to its gallant soldiers, and especially to the fast diminishing survivors of our immortal Light Brigade.

Liverpool, August 16th 1892. T. F. E."

Two previously published news items were later found relating to his death and funeral.

From the Liverpool Mercury, 15th of August 1892:

Death of a Light Brigade Hero

John Doyle, who joined the King's Royal Irish Hussars in 1850 and passed through the Crimean and Indian Mutiny campaigns and fighting in the Balaclava charge, died in the Liverpool Infirmary yesterday in his 60th year.

Of late he had suffered from an affection of the heart and entered the hospital six weeks ago.

Doyle, who was known as "Darby, the Devil", had found his pension too scant to meet his wants. His only relative is a niece, and she has been communicated with. A subscription to pay the funeral expenses has been opened."

From the Liverpool Mercury, 17th of August 1892:

A Balaclava Hero's Funeral

At Anfield Cemetery yesterday afternoon a humble funeral took place which was but little noticed by anyone — the interment of John Doyle, one of the 8th Hussars who rode in the famous Charge and who served throughout the Crimean war as a trooper in that regiment.

There were few mourners present yesterday to witness the interment of his remains, but amongst those who paid respect were two of his fellow campaigners — James Glanister, a trooper in the 11th Hussars and William Pearson of the 4th Light Dragoons. Sergeant Tapory of Doyle's own regiment came from Norwich, with the purpose before him of attending the funeral.

The coffin was taken to the grave — a public one — on the shoulders of four of the 12th Lancers, who belonged to a party of eight.

Doyle's only relative present was a Miss Lavan, a niece, and the only other mourner was Mrs. MacFadden, who was Doyle's landlady in Manchester.

The Revd. Father Kehoe conducted the service in the Catholic Chapel and Messrs Morgan. of Pembroke Place and Mount-Pleasant had charge of the funeral arrangements."

Another letter was published in the same newspaper on the 23rd of August 1892:

Britain's Old Soldiers

Gentlemen, — While Britain allows its old soldiers to drag out their lives in the workhouse. "T. F. S. " in your issue of yesterday need not wonder at the powers-that-be refusing to permit a military funeral in the case of the late John Doyle.

Had he been one of our city fathers, a big brewer, or even one of our volunteers, mighty efforts would doubtless have been made to render his final obsequies as imposing as possible.

But John Doyle had only been "One of the Six Hundred", who made the greatest battle charge the world has ever heard of, or probably ever will again.

It is a national disgrace that the fast dwindling remnants of that noble Light Brigade should be shown at their country's hands such indifference, alike in life as in death, and it may yet occur to some that had it not been for the inspiration of a Tennyson the remembrance of that noble charge would have long since been well-nigh forgotten.

We scatter money broadcast in pensions for our scientists, our authors and so forth, but I wonder whether they have not had more chance than "Tommy Atkins" in putting by something for the evening of life.

We hear about the inefficiency of the Army, but I venture to predict that whilst our worn-out soldiers receive such wretched treatment, not all the Royal Commissions in the world will avail in elevating the standard of our rank and file...

Walton, August 2th, 1892. W. R. Williams."

There is an apparent contradiction in the statement of a refusal to permit a military funeral mentioned in both letters, when military personnel were at the funeral in the persons of the men of the 12th Lancers who carried the coffin. It could be that this honour was paid un-officially by the regiment concerned.

References & acknowledgements

Details of the 1851 Census, death registration and additional information about JD's membership of the Balaclava Dinners kindly provided by Chris Poole.

Other sources

Wikipedia: John Doyle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Doyle_(British_Army_soldier)

Part of his Memoir is quoted in Orlando Figes, Crimea, [CHECK page]. There is is an abbreviated digital version of this book [CHECK url].

References & acknowledgements

Press clipping about his presence at the Royal Military Tournament in 1892, kindly provided by Chris Poole.