Born c.1822 in Edinburgh, Midlothian, He was most probably the son of Pringle Ferguson and Beatrix Potter, and was baptised in St. Cuthbert's Church on the 14th of November 1821. His parents were married in the same church on the 6th of January 1817.
(Another Robert Ferguson was baptised in St. Cuthbert's Church on the 19th of March 1824, the son of James Ferguson and Isabella Stewart. His parents were married in the same church on the 19th of August 1817. This would appear however to be too late a date to have been him.)
Enlisted at Exeter on the 9th of December 1843.
Age: 21.
Height: 5' 11".
Trade: Traveller.
Appearance: Fresh complexion. Grey eyes. Sandy hair.
From Private to Corporal: 7th of May 1847.
Confined 25th of October — 2nd of November and reduced to Private by a Regimental Court-martial on the 2nd of November 1847.
Sent to Scutari on the 13th of February and rejoined the regiment on the 15th of May 1855.
Appointed to Saddler-Sergeant while absent from the Regiment at Scutari, but back-dated to the 6th of February 1855.
Sent to the Cavalry Depot at Canterbury when the regiment received orders to embark for India, "on furlo" from the 13th of August to the 13th of October 1867, and reverted to Duty Sergeant the same day.
At the time of the Cardigan-Calthorpe law-suit in June of 1863 he was a Sergeant in "H" Troop, stationed at Newbridge in Ireland. In a signed affidavit made at the time he stated:
AFFIDAVIT of ROBERT FERGUSON, Serjeant in the H. Troop of the 4th Hussars, now stationed in Newbridge in Ireland, formerly called the 4th Light Dragoons; sworn 20th May, 1863; filed 2nd June, 1863.
1. I have been serjeant nearly eight years. I was a private in the 4th Light Dragoons on the 25th October, 1854. I remember the charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava on that day. Before the charge, the 8th Hussars and the 4th Light Dragoons were in line. The 11th Hussars were to the left front of our line, and the 17th Lancers and the 13th Light Dragoons formed the first line. I was in the centre of the front rank of the right-hand squadron during that charge and was the left guide of the right troop of the first squadron; and Captain (now Colonel) Lowe was squadron leader.
2. I followed Captain Lowe up to the guns, which were then being carried away by the Russians, and were considerably to the rear of their original position. I was immediately behind him. I saw Captain Lowe knock over one or two Russians off one of the guns with his revolver. We soon got the gun completely in our possession, but could not bring it away, having no support to enable us to do so.
Just at that time I saw Lord George Paget come up and ask, "Where is the General?" We all looked around but could not see him. He had alluded to Lord Cardigan.
Lord George Paget then commanded us to form up on what he supposed to be the 17th Lancers. I looked round to my left rear and I saw that the cavalry behind us were Russian Lancers [LC has: "and not the 17th Lancers"] and I told his Lordship so. He [LC: "His Lordship"] then said, "You are quite right; men, you must fight the best of your way back." and that he would find his own way back. We were then a good deal scattered, but we succeeded in passing by [LC "retiring past" the Lancers without them attacking us ["LC: "without being attacked by them"].
On our arrival back [LC "arriving"] at our original positions the few of us that were left formed up, and Lord Cardigan came forward and said, "This is a great blunder, but no fault of mine." Some of the men, including myself, answered, "My Lord, we are ready to go back again." His Lordship replied, "No, you have done enough to-day, my men!"
If Lord Cardigan had been in advance of us at the guns I would have seen him and if he returned as we were returning [LC: "retiring"] I must have observed him. He must have retired to our original position before I got back. There were not three persons returned after me, I am positive... [LC: "there were not three persons _returned after me_"]."
Discharged from Canterbury on the 7th of January 1868: "Free, to pension after 24 years' service."
Conduct: "good".
In possession of two Good Conduct badges when promoted and would now have had five.
Twice entered in the Regimental Defaulter's book. Once tried by Court-martial.
Served 24 years 222 days.
In Turkey and the Crimea: 1 year 10 months.
Aged 45 years on discharge.
He was shown as receiving £1 subsistence and £2/12/3d for travelling fares to Birmingham, with wife [in red ink, but crossed out] next to his name. This amount however, when compared with a single passage rate to the same destination of 14/7d. would indicate that he was accompanied by his family.
[Note: The first quarter (January-April) of 1868 was the first occasion in which men on the Married Roll of their respective regiments was shown in the musters. None of the several men discharged during this period (including some who are known to have been married at the time) are shown, and those remaining are all dated the 13th of August 1867 (the date on which men of the 4th Light Dragoons, had joined) yet numbers of children whose ages are obviously from previous marriage dates, are. ]
To live at No. 4 New Vauxhall Terrace, New Vauxhall, Birmingham, after discharge.
His pension of 2/- per day was paid from the Birmingham District Pensions District from discharge, but from the Taunton Office from the 1st of April 1868.
His original pension of 24d. was increased to 30d. per day following 13 years 7 months in the "A & R Force" effective from the 28th of February 1882. He had served in this as a Sergeant Major in the Bridgwater Troop of the West Somerset Yeomany Cavalry.
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasps for Alma, Balaclava, Inkerman and Sebastopol.
Documents confirm the award of the Crimean medal with four clasps, the Turkish Medal, the Distinguished Conduct Medal, and the Long Service & Good Conduct medal with a gratuity of £15. At the time of the making out of the documents it stated, "Is entitled to, but has not yet received the Long Service & Good Conduct medal."
He was recommended for theDistinguished Conduct Medal on the 5th of February 1855, he was granted a gratuity of £5. He rode in Captain Low's squadron and was concerned in an attempt to bring back a Russian gun.
Awarded the Long Service & Good Conduct medal on the 15th of August 1868.
Appointed a Yeoman of the Guard in 1871.
Attended the first Balaclava Banquet in 1875,.
Member of the Balaclava Commemoration Society in 1879.
Signed the Loyal Address to the Queen in 1887.
1881 Census
No 35 Sutherland Street, in the parish of St. Gabriel's, Westminster.
Robert Ferguson, aged 60 years, is shown as a Pensioner and Yeoman of the Royal Body Guard, born in Edinburgh.
With him were his wife, Anne, aged 58 and born in Dublin, three daughters, Elizabeth Butler, (married) aged 23, born in Brighton, Ellen, aged 22, born in Birmingham and a Cashier and Margaret, aged 16, a Milliner and born in Dublin.
There were also two lodgers, both clerks in a flour warehouse.
__________
No 6 Chiltern Street, Wembdon, Somerset.
Robert Alexander [son], born at Ipswich, a Conveyance Clerk (Law), aged 27, was living here with his wife, Linda Rydon, born at North Petherton, 24, and a child, Robert James Campbell, 2 years.
There is a photograph of No. 35 Sutherland Street, Westminster (centre of picture) in the 4th Hussar file.
Died on the 22nd of September 1890. He was living in the Taunton Pension District up to 1875, but the St. Catherine's House records for the October-December Quarter of 1890 show the death of a "Robert Ferguson", aged 69 years, in the Fulham District of London.
His death certificate shows that he died at No. 116 Dawes Road, Fulham, London, aged 69 years, from "Epithelium of the face, 18 months" (this was a malignant tumour). He was shown only as being an "Army Pensioner" and his married daughter, L. [sic] Butler (then living at the Garrison Schools, Woolwich) was in attendance, and the informant of his death. (There is a copy in the 4th Hussar file.)
After a service in Fulham Parish Church he was buried in Brompton Cemetery, London, on the 27th of September 1890 in Compartment "H." This was a public grave, and no memorial stone was erected. (See photograph of his grave-area in the 4th Hussar file.) No obituary notice or funeral report can be found in either of the two local newspapers in circulation at the time, so it is probable that he had not been living long enough in the area for anyone to have known of him. He left no will, or at least it was not probated at Somerset House.
Just why he was living at this address can only be surmised at. Perhaps his wife had died and the family scattered. (Up to 1883 has been checked without any trace of this having happened.) From the Council Rates records the person paying this at the time was a Mr. Woodrow, the rateable house value being only £47 and certainly not of the standard in which he had been living in Westminster. (See photograph of this house [taken in 1998] in the 4th Hussar file.) The following year the house was empty when it became liable. None of the Ferguson family were living in Sutherland Street in 1891, the house being multi-occupied, as it was in 1881.
The Census for North Petherton of 1861 show James Sellars, aged 62, a Miller and his wife, Hannah aged 63, living at Millcombe Mill, North Petherton, with two house servants.
In 1871 as a widower, born in Wedmore, Somerset and a miller by trade, Mary Jane Nation, his daughter, a widow, aged 40 years, a housekeeper and two grand-daughters, Clara Elizabeth, aged 16, a dressmaker, born at North Petherton (in 1891 she was living in Wembdon as a boarder in a house in Fore Street, a dressmaker) and Nellie Kate, aged 9, and a scholar, born at Bridgwater.
In 1881 Mary Jane Nation, was aged 50, a housekeeper and daughter of James Sellars (head of the household.)
By 1891 Mary Jane was a widow, aged 60, born in Bridgwater, "living on her own means," in Mill Bay Villa, North Petherton, with an un-married daughter, Nellie Kate, aged 39, born in North Petherton, and a Board School Mistress.
The Census of 1891 for Wembdon shows no Ferguson family members living there.
Mary Ann Sellars was baptised at North Petherton on the 29th of November 1829, the daughter of James and Anne [sic]. Her father was a son of Jeffrey and Jane Sellars nee -----, who were married at North Petherton on the 29th of March 1796. (there are two children of the same name baptised at North Petherton, one on the 19th of February 1798 and the other on the 14th of January 1801) so probably one had died young. Jeffrey Sellars was a son of a John Sellars and was born on the 14th of January 1772.
The first recorded member of the Nation family would seem to be Agnes, in 1559.
His Crimean medals and the Distinguished Conduct medal were disposed of by the greater family at different times, and only came together when the purchaser of the Crimean medals sold them to the then owner of the D.C.M. upon hearing of the latter's possession of it. Nothing of the whereabouts of his Long Service & Good Conduct medal came out at the time, nor seemingly, of his Jubilee medal.
Apart from knowing that Robert Ferguson was in the Yeoman of the Guard at one time and that he "died somewhere in the South," the family knew of no other facts. The Long Service & Good Conduct to Ferguson's nephew was also sold to the owner of the D.C.M. but nothing is known of any further sale. (See copies of photographs in the 4th Hussar file showing the naming on both the Crimean and Turkish medals.)
Could it be that Cunningham was Robert Ferguson's wife's maiden name? Any of their marriage details would be very difficult to find, given the apparent circumstances of this taking place, and the Irish Central Registry Office records do not commence until 1864.
(The original purchaser of the Crimean medal now states that he bought the Crimean medal, the Turkish medal and also the Long Service & Good Conduct medal of Ferguson's nephew, No. 5 Saddler Sergeant Martin Cunningham, and awarded on the 1st of January 1878, from the wife of Ferguson's great-nephew at Darlington in 1972. (This was most probably Robert Alexander.)
No final discharge documents appear to have survived for Martin Ferguson and only the basic details of his service are therefore available. No. 5 Martin Cunningham was shown in the Regimental muster rolls of the 4th Hussars as having been enlisted at Dublin on the 4th of March 1857 at the age of 15 years 3 months, height, 4' 6', and joining the regiment, then at Brighton and Chichester, on the 17th of March. He had taken over his uncle's position as Saddler Sergeant on the 13th of August 1867, the same day as the latter reverted to Duty Sergeant and went to Canterbury.
He was first shown on the Regimental "Married roll" from the 9th of October 1867, his wife's name being Mary Jane. (It is now known that Martin Cunningham was married (after banns) to Mary Jane Ferguson in St. Margaret's Church, Topsham, in the St. Thomas's District of Devonshire (the regiment being at Topsham Barracks) on the 9th of October 1867. (From these dates he would seem to have married on the strength of his promotion to Saddler Sergeant, no specific term of service for a sergeant wishing to get married being required.)
The marriage certificate shows him as being a bachelor, a Sergeant in the Army, living in Topsham Parish, his father being named as James Cunningham, also a soldier. She was a spinster, also of Topsham Parish, and her father as Robert Ferguson, a Sergeant. Both were of "full age". (See copy of this in the "Certificates file.)
From this it would seem that she was the eldest daughter of 1192 Robert Ferguson and his wife, Anne, (the couple therefore being first cousins) and the former's medals were passed down to her (his only known son being then in America and presumably dead).
(She would have been one of the 55 women who, together with their 71 children, embarked aboard the troopship, "Serapia" on the 15th of October 1867 for a voyage to India lasting six weeks and returned to England on the same ship as one of the recorded 36 "married wives" [sic] and 95 children on the 6th of December 1878.)
He had no campaign service, but would have served in India with the regiment at Meerut and Rawalpindi from November of 1867 until its return to England in January of 1879. Awarded the Long Service & Good Conduct medal on the 1st of January 1878 (without gratuity) he was discharged to pension from Aldershot on the 14th of December 1880 and travelled to London (where he intended to reside) accompanied by his wife, Mary Jane, and four children, their ages ranging from 8 years 8 months to 2 years 1 month.
From the 1881 Census he was living at No. 24 Maiden Lane, in the parish of St. Pauls, Covent Garden, London, with his wife and four children. He was then shown as being a 'Commissionaire", aged 39, and born in Ireland, his wife, Mary Ann, aged 32 and also born in Ireland, and four children, all being born in India, and as 'Scholars."
These children were Robert Alexander, born at Meerut on the 6th of March 1872, Ellen Mary, born at Rawal Pindi on the 22nd of February 1875, Sarah Alice, born at Rawal Pindi on the 24th of October 1876 and Margaret Alice, born at Muttra on the 3rd of September 1878.
He was enrolled into the Corps of Commissionaires on the 23rd of December 1880, his Corps number being 587, and left the service of the Corps on the 29th of April 1905, after serving for almost 25 years.
(The house in Maiden Lane in which he lived in 1881 was, as thought, the property of the Corps, the freehold of this and No 24 (by then derelict properties) were sold in 1951 and the Old Barracks, No's 21/22 Maiden Lane, was disposed of on a 200 year building lease around the same time.)
His Long Service & Good Conduct medal was sent to the Staff Officer, Pensions, at Taunton, Somerset, where he was by then serving in the West Somerset Yeomanry Cavalry. Although recommended also for the Meritorious Service Medal this was refused. No other explanation can be given for this other than, being in possession of the DCM, with an annuity, he could not have been granted (according to the rules laid down at the time) the award of another medal carrying an annuity, both coming from the same financial source in the annual Army Estimates.
He was also awarded the Queen Victoria 1887 Jubilee Medal (in bronze) whilst serving in the Yeoman of the Guard.
In 1997 his great-grandson, the Revd. Ian Ferguson MacDougall, wrote to the Yeoman of the Guard at St. James's Palace seeking information. They were unable to tell him but little and the letter was passed on [i.e. to EJB]. A further letter to him and his reply, brought the information that he knew but little of Robert Ferguson although having been trying to find out more over many years.
An aunt had been convinced that he was never a soldier, but the valet to an officer who had served in the Crimea. Other family knowledge told of a distant cousin who could remember him coming back from the Crimea, of his sword and possibly helmet and medals, being given to another cousin who went to America. Of how he was allowed to bring his horse, named "Lion", back to England, and, on its death, one of its horseshoes being made into a flat-iron stand, of how, on the cousin's death some 30 years ago, it had been given to another cousin, but was now lost.
The Reverend had traced two of Robert Ferguson's children, one of whom was his grandfather, Robert Alexander, born in May of 1853 and who had married Linda Rydon Nation at St. Mary's Church, North Petherton, Somerset, in July of 1878, and the other was Margaret, who had married Frank Calway at St. Mary's Church, Battersea, in July of 1884.
He knew nothing of his great grandmother except that family tradition is that she was believed to be Irish, the daughter of a landowner and that he had run away to marry her despite parental opposition. Some time around 1883 she was said to be living in North Petherton and looking after a child of Robert Alexander and his wife Lydia, after they had emigrated to Florida. He also believed that Robert Ferguson and his wife had lived in a "Grace and Favour" apartment at Hampton Court Palace when a Yeoman of the Guard. (This does not seem feasible as it clashes with the time he was still in the West Somerset Yeomanry and such were usually occupied by those of higher social standing.)
No family portraits are possessed, although he does have a silver-plated ink stand bearing the inscription "To Sergeant Major Ferguson from Captain Pitman. As a token of regard for his great attention to the prosperity of the Bridgwater Troop. Feby, 1880."
Further information on the Nation family comes from the present descendant:
"Grandfather Nation allowed a man and his wife who were holidaying in Petherton and who had recently lost their own 12-year-old daughter to adopt one of his children, Lydia Rydon.
My grandfather, Robert Alexander Ferguson, fell in love with Lydia when she was on a visit to her grandparents and married her. Her adopted parents having died, she was the possessor of a large inheritance and was a Ward of Chancery. Robert Alexander, being a lawyer, managed to get her money out of Chancery and they lived "like fighting cocks", with a carriage and four and a large Georgian house, until the money ran out.
On emigrating to Jacksonville in Florida they left their two children Nellie Kate and Robert James Campbell behind until they were settled, they going to live with their respective grandparents. Several children were later born in America, but all died young, with the exception of Ellen Dunham, my mother. Robert Alexander having died in Florida of yellow fever his wife brought the surviving child back to England where she met for the first time the brother and sister who had been left here.
Of these, Nellie Kate later went to America, where she became a nurse, and dying at the age of over 90. Robert James Campbell became a school-teacher too, being Headmaster at Stogursey School, and leaving in 1914 to join the Somerset Light Infantry. After serving in Mesopotamia and India he agreed at the end of the war to be transferred to the Ox and Bucks L.I. to allow married men to return home but sadly caught flue and died in India.
My mother lived with her great-aunt at North Petherton until she was 21, and then went to India with a military family as governess to their children. Whilst there the head of that family died, and she went in the same capacity to another military family, a Colonel Halloran and his American wife. and children.
Whilst there she met my father, a Captain in the R.A.M.C., and they agreed to marry after the War. On her employers returning to America, and she going with them, she later became a nurse and returning to England when the war ended, married my father Donald Kerr MacDougall, at North Petherton in 1920. Moving to Southport in Lancashire, my father was G.P. there until his death in 1948, and on it, the family returned to Somerset. "