Birth & early life
Born c.1832, the son of Thomas Kimble, a farm labourer, and his wife Elizabeth, in Old Windsor [two miles south of Windsor].
Just prior to enlistment, Thomas Kimble was living with his parents in Englefield Green, nearby.
1851 Census
156 Englefield Green, Parish of Egham (St John Baptist)
Thomas Kimble [Ancestry.co.uk transcribes it as "Kemble"], Head, Married, 42, Farm Labourer, born Bucks, Wyrardisbury.
Elizabeth Kimble, Wife, Married, 48, born B...[word illeg.] Windsor.
Thomas Kimble, Son, 19, Farm Labourer, as above i.e. Windsor.
James Kimble, Son, 16, Farm Labourer, Bucks, Wyrardisbury.
Mary Kimble, Daughter, 15, no occupation shown, born as above i.e. Bucks, Wyrardisbury. [PB]
[PB, 2013: Wyrardisbury is now generally called Wraysbury, a village close to Windsor, but on the north Bank of the Thames. It was part of Buckinghamshire until 1974, when it was incorporated into Berkshire. Englefield Green, Egham and Old Windsor are on one side of the Thames, Wraysbury on the other, but they are all within a few miles of each other. Thomas Kimble's specification in later censuses that he was born in "Old Windsor" is consistent with this location.]
Service
Sent sick to Scutari on the 16th of September 1854 and to rejoin the regiment on the 14th of December.
Kimble was sent to Scutari when the regiment was disembarking in the Crimea. From the date shown, he would not therefore have landed in the Crimea at this time.
The muster rolls of the Scutari Depot (which also record men in Hospital or aboard a Hospital Ship) show him as joining the Depot on the 11th of September, and "To Hospital".
He was aboard a Hospital Ship during October and November 1854, and was sent back to the regiment on the 14th of December 1854.
There is no mention of his returning to the regiment for the battles of the Alma, Balaclava and Inkerman. The muster roll for May through to September of 1855 shows him as being "On Command" at Scutari and embarking on the 9th of September 1855 for Eupatoria aboard the "Medway", and returning to Scutari aboard the "Jason" in November.
Transferred to the 7th Hussars on the 1st of September 1857.
Served in the field in Oude, East Indies, 4th of February — 14th of May 1858, including the Siege of Lucknow, 2nd-16th of March 1858. Regtl. No. 149.
Returned to England from India on the 5th of March 1865.
Medals
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasp for Sebastopol and the Turkish medal.
Lummis and Wynn state "no clasps", but he is to be found on the Sebastopol clasp roll.
Mutiny medal with clasp for Lucknow.
A "T. Kimble" shown as being a member of the Balaclava Commemoration Society in 1877.
A "J. Kimbel" shown in the 1879 revised list.
[RM, PB, November 2013: For further opinions on Kimble's status in the Crimea, see the lively correspondence in the OMRS Journal 1978 (pp.36-37, p.188 and pp.268-269) and 1984 (p.257), in which letters were published from Major AGH (Geoffrey) Moore, Gordon Everson, Canon Lummis and the editor JMA Tamplin. EJB's research was cited several times. Also a booklet, "Three Chose War", by Geoffrey Moore.
See also Major Moore's comments about the problems of determining whether a man had indeed Charged in the record of1117 Henry Murrow, 11th Hussars.]
"One More of the Six Hundred": Correspondence about Thomas Kimble as a "Charger" in the Journal of the Orders & Medals Research Society (1978 & 1984).
(Click on image to enlarge)
Life after service
1871 Census
Uxbridge Road, Kingston.
Thomas Kimble was living in a mews and stable as one of many Coachmen on the staff of Frederick Crowder.
Thomas Kimble, 39, unmarried, Coachman, Old Windsor, Berks.
Marriage registered
Thomas Kimble and Henrietta Agnes Bennett, June Quarter 1872, Holborn.
Henrietta had previously been a milliner in Frith Street, Soho.
1881 Census
Pond Cottages, Barlavington, Sussex.
Thomas Kimble, Coachman, aged 49, born in Old Windsor, Berkshire.
Henrietta Kimble, wife, aged 50, born in London, City Road, Middlesex.
No other family members are shown.
[PB: the birthplaces given here are as transcribed by Ancestry.co.uk, but the online images are unclear.]
There were two large houses in Barlavington in 1881 occupied by people who might have employed a Coachman. One was Charles Willock Dawes, a Gentleman, who lived in Burton Hill with five servants, none of these being shown as a Groom. But a Groom (Domestic) lived in Burton Hill Lodge, with his nine children.
The other, perhaps a more likely candidate, was Richard Temple Godman, a Colonel in the Army, who lived at Burton House with his wife, Eliza, 6 children, and a retinue of no fewer than 16 household servants of various categories, three of these being grooms. A Coachman (Domestic) lived in the Bailiff's House, as did a Farm Bailiff. Pond Cottage must have been a number of cottages as families besides Kimble lived in them.
It is of note that Richard Godman had a particular connection with the Crimea. He became a Cornet in the 5th Dragoon Guards in 1851, and rode (as a Lieutenant) in the Charge of the Heavy Brigade. His letters home to his family, published in 1977 as "The Fields of War" (edited by Philip Warner), are some of the most vividly descriptive existing of life and conditions in the Crimea of the day. The second son of the thirteen children of Joseph and Caroline Godman, he was born at Hatch End, Hascomb, Surrey, in 1832. He had married Eliza de Crespigny in 1871 at the age of 39, she being only 21, and there were later four sons and two daughters in the family. He became a Major General in 1885, and died in 1912.
1891 Census
Latchman House, stables, Ham and Hatch parish, Kingston.
Thomas Kimble is shown aged 57, a Coachman (Domestic Servant), with his wife Henrietta, aged 58, born in City, London.
EJB thought that Thomas Kimble may have died in 1895. However, RM & Chris Poole discovered in Census data not available to EJB that a Thomas Kimble and a Henrietta Kimble, both with the right ages, were still living in the area well into the next century.
1901 Census
1, New Road Cottages, Ham, London (Parish of St Andrews).
Thomas Kimble, 66, Jobbing [word illeg.] Gardener, working on own account, born Berkshire, Old Windsor.
Henrietta, 68, Shopkeeper, Confectioner, working on own account at home, born London City.
A Boarder, George Neave, 40, Gardener, domestic, born Kent, Canterbury, is also shown.
Death registered
Henrietta Agnes Kimble, 73, September Quarter 1903, Kingston.
1911 Census
5 Victoria Terrace, Lock Rd, Ham.
Thomas Kemble, Boarder, 77, Widower, marriage lasted 39 years, Gardener, born Old Windsor.
He was boarding with a widow, Ellen Jessie Fidler, 49, and her two sons, aged 13 & 9, and a daughter, 10, all born Ham.
