Service
Sent to Scutari in December 1854 and rejoined the regiment on the 15th of January 1855.
Embarked for India from Cork aboard the S.S. "Great Britain" on the 8th of October 1857.
The musters for July-September 1858 show him as being "On Field Service" from September of the period.
In action against the rebels at Zeerapore on the 29th of December 1858 and at Baroda on the 1st of January 1859.
Marriage
The India Office records show two children born to Private Henry Mugg of the 17th Lancers and his wife, Mary.
A daughter, Alice Ann, died from "Dentito" [?] at Secunderbad, aged 1 year 6 months and 12 days, on the 11th of September 1862. She was buried on the same day by the Rev. Thomas Doyle, Chaplain.
A son, William, was born at Secunderbad on the 30th of December 1862 and baptised on the 8th of January 1863 by the Revd Piggot-James, Chaplain.
Sent to Bombay on the 23rd of November 1863, on passage to England from the 21st of January 1864, and at the Canterbury Depot from the 21st of May 1864.
Discharge & pension
Discharged, "time expired", from Canterbury on the 28th of May 1864.
Served 12 years 258 days.
In Turkey and the Crimea: 1 year 10 monthsIn India: 5 years 1 month.
Conduct: "good". In possession of one Good Conduct badges.
Commemorations
Member of the Balaclava Commemoration Society in 1879.
Signed the Loyal Address to the Queen in 1887.
Trooping the Colour at the Royal Military Tournament, May 1892: Sergeant Hibbert 4LD, Corporal Eastoe 11H, and Lieutenant Wightman, Private Mugg, and Private Mullins, all 17L, St James's Gazette, 25 May 1892
(Click on image to enlarge)
Attended the Annual Dinners in 1895-97 and 1907-08 and 1909.
He received considerable help from the Roberts Fund (to a total of £244/16/6d.) during his lifetime, and which also paid his funeral expenses.
He appeared with other Crimean War veterans as a "Battle of Balaklava Hero" in the Lord Mayor's Show, 1890. A specially printed programme for this event lists all these men and Mugg is shown travelling in the 14th carriage in the procession. [RM]]
Life after service
1871 Census
Lodge, Farnborough.
Henry Mugg, 39, Coachman, Shardlow.
Mary, 32, Tipperary, Ireland.
Four children areshown: William, 8 (born Madras); Margaret, 5 (Colchester); John, 3 (London); Thomas, 1.
1881 Census
13, Hamilton Mews, St. Marylebone, London.
The 1881 Census shows him as a Coachman, aged 48, born in Derby, married (but no record of wife being present).
[CP: Eight are children shown: William, 18 (born India); Margaret, 15; John, 14; Thomas, 12; Mary, 9; Edward, 7; Jane, 5; Robert, 2.]
In an Account and Address Book formerly used by James W. Wightman when the Secretary of the Balaclava Society, his address was shown as "No. 13 Hamilton Mews, St, John's Wood, London."
Death registered
Mary Mugg, 42, March Quarter 1881, Hampstead.
Marriage registered
Henry Mugg to Florence Rhoda Newman, September Quarter 1882, Marylebone.
[Florence was a 17-year-old Kitchen Maid in 1881.]
1891 Census
Prospect Road, Cove, Southampton.
Henry Mugg, 60, retired Coachman, born Shardlow.
Four children are shown: Jane, 16; Robert, 11; Emma, 5; Oliver, 4.
1901 Census
Cove, civil parish of Southampton
The 1901 Census shows Mugg as a "Retired Coachman", aged 68, born at Shardlow, Derbyshire. [RM]
He was living with his wife, Florence, 35, Cheltenham. [?? children shown]: John 33 [?], Oliver 14, Florence 5. [CP]
[PB, Dec. 2014: According to the Scunthorpe Daily Echo, 25 March 1903, HM was living at 205, The Grove, Hammersmith, London, when he was interviewed for an advertorial on behalf of Doan's Backache Kidney Pills.]
[RM/PB, Dec 2014: George Badger, Matthew Holland, Patrick Doolan and Henry Mugg featured in an advertorial for "Doan's Backache Kidney Pills", in the Sunderland Daily Echo, 25 March 1903. It is likely this appeared elsewhere. Their crudely engraved portraits, each enclosed in an oval mount, emphasises their medals. In the accompanying article, each man describes how the arduousness of their military lives had severely damaged them, but "Doan's Backache Kidney Pills" soon put them right again. Notice George Badger's pain was "like a sword thrust". ]
Advertorial for "Doan's Backache Kidney Pills", featuring George Badger, Patrick Doolan, Henry Mugg, and Matthew Holland, published in the Sunderland Daily Echo, 25th of March 1903.
(Click on images to enlarge)
HAS DRIVEN KING EDWARD
Mr Henry Mugg, of 205, The Grove, Hammersmith, London, W., served in the 17th Lancers — the world-renowned "Death or Glory Boys." He is 71 years of age, but remembers, as though it were only yesterday, the wild charge immortalised by Lord Tennyson's stirring poem. Mr Mugg was one of the few fortunate ones, for he escaped with merely a slight wound. He told us, bearing out the truth of Tennyson's words, how comrades fell by twos and threes to the right and left of him.
Since leaving the service Mr Mugg has been coachman in the service of a titled gentleman. He has had the honour of driving his Majesty King Edward, and most of the Members of the Royal Family. Mr Mugg is well known is well known and highly respected in Aldershot, where he resided till quite recently.
What Mr Mugg says.
"I am retired now, for I am getting on in years, and some while back my health began to to give out. I was digging in my garden at Aldershot when I first had the stab-like pain in my back which told me of my kidney complaint. Frequently afterwards I had this pain, especially when I caught cold. The trouble soon spread to my limbs, and I couldn't hold up my arm. There were certain other unmistakable signs of disordered kidney action.
To-day, however, I am quite cured, and this is entirely due to Doan's Backache Kidney Pills. They relieved my back and kidneys from the first, and very quickly put me right. Mine is a wonderful cure, for I am in my seventy-second year.
"HENRY MUGG"
1911 Census
47, Maberlet Road, Upper Norwood, SE.
[This is the same address as on Henry's death certificate.]
Henry Mugg, 80, Boarder, born Farnborough.
Living with Henry Elkins and wife Amy [later that month, the informant on Henry Mugg's death certificate].
One child shown, their daughter, and 2 other boarders.
NB: The Census was taken 2nd April. Henry Mugg died 20th April. This is the same address as on Henry's death certificate.
Death registered
Florence R Mugg, 49, March Quarter 1916, Paddington.
Death & burial
Henry Mugg died on the 20th of April 1911, in the Croydon District, aged 80 years. The GRO records confirm this.
He died at 47, Maberley Road, Penge, from "Senile Degeneration, Mycardial asthenia, Syncope." He is shown as "Formerly a Trooper of the 17th Lancers. (Pensioned.) An Amy Elkins 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 on the 24th of April 1911 in the Crystal Palace Cemetery, Elmers End, London, in Grave No. 6029, Plot W5. This was a common grave and there is no headstone. By the late 1970s the grave area was very overgrown and desolate, and the exact grave-site impossible to discover. (See photograph of the area in the 17th Lancer file.)
References & acknowledgements
Registration of deaths and marriage, and Census information for 1871, 1891, 1901 & 1911 and additional information for 1881 & 1901, Fund, and a press clipping about his presence at the Royal Military Tournament in 1892, kindly provided by Chris Poole.
