Born on the 22nd of March 1823 at Beccles, Suffolk, the son of James Mayhew, a baker.
Enlisted at Ipswich on the 11th of February 1843.
Age: 20.
Height: 5' 8".
Trade: Baker.
Sent to Scutari on the 7th of May and was invalided to England on the 2nd of June 1855.
Sent to Dorchester from Chatham on the 17th of September 1855.
Discharged, "by purchase", from Cahir on the 5th of October 1856. Payment of £5.
Served 13 years 240 days.
Conduct: "very good".
In possession of two Good Conduct badges.
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasps for Alma, Balaclava, Inkerman, Sebastopol and the Turkish medal.
He was later awarded a Special "Campaign Pension" (no date shown).
Attended the Annual Dinner in 1897.
He is shown on a list of survivors in receipt of an allowance from the Patriotic Fund, dated the 6th of February 1897.
Although not known to have ever been a member of the Balaclava Commemoration Society he was accepted byT.H. Roberts as a survivor and invited by him to attend the Jubilee celebrations organised by him at his Fleet Street offices in June 1897. He signed the testimonial given to Mr. Roberts at this time. (See copy in the "Memoirs" file.)
1881 Census
27, Orchard Street, Islington, London.
The 1881 Census shows a Charlotte Mayhew, aged 49, married, a Painter's Wife, born at Islington, Middlesex, with her three children, James A., 19, Errand Boy, 19, William, 16, also an Errand Boy, both born at Clerkenwell, and Harriet, 7, a Scholar.
A man who could possibly be James Mayhew, but doubtful, is shown in the same Census as living at 3, Wharf Road, West Ham, London, the home of Joseph Snelling, an Engine Fitter, as a Boarder, Unmarried, a Stoker, 58, born at Woodbridge, Suffok.
In June 1897 he wrote from No. 6 Munster Road, Tottenham, London, when accepting an invitation fromT.H. Roberts to attend the Jubilee celebrations at his Fleet Street offices. He also offered to act as a representative to "bring up the maimed, the lame and blind amongst my old comrades... I enjoy good health, yet often depressed for want of employment."
Died at No. 25 North Grove, Tottenham, London, on the 3rd of January 1901, aged 78 years, from "Chronic Bronchitis, Exhaustion." He was described as being a "House-Painter Journeyman and Army Pensioner." His son, J.A. Mayhew, of the same address, was present at, and the informant of his death. (There is a copy of his death certificate in the "Certificates" file.)
He was buried in a public grave, No. 5309, in Tottenham Cemetery, White Hart Lane, Tottenham, no headstone being erected. The cemetery records confirm his address and age and states that he was "Married."
See photograph of his gravesite (that next to the kerbed grave area on the right) in the 13th Hussar file.)