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LIVES OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE
The E.J. Boys Archive

Added 14.9.2011. Minor edits 1.4.14.

1172, Private William ROBERTS — 17th Lancers

Birth & early life

Born in London.

Enlistment

Enlisted into the 16th Lancers at London on the 29th of December 1840.

Regimental No. 1503.

No other enlistment details apart from his trade as a painter are shown.

Service, discharge & pension

Volunteered into the 3rd Light Dragoons on he 28th of February 1846. Regimental No. 1627.

Transferred to the 17th Lancers on the 1st of July 1853:

"Absent", from the 2nd of July — 17th of August 1853.

Tried by a District Court-martial on the 21st of March 1855 for ''absence" and given 50 lashes:

Discharge & pension

"Deserted" on the 15th of June 1855 at "8 o'clock in the evening". The muster roll shows him as being "Given up".

Lummis and Wynn stated that he "Died on the 15th of June 1855." Can find no further trace to March 1865.

Next of kin: his father, William Roberts.

Medals

Entitled to the Sutlej medal with clasps for Aliwal and Sobraon, with the 16th Lancers.

Entitled to the Punjab medal with clasps for Chilianwala and Goojerat with the 3rd Light Dragoons. Served during the whole of the campaign in the Punjab up to the occupation of Peshwar.

Entitled (according to the medal rolls) to the Crimean medal with clasps for Alma, Balaclava, Inkerman and the Turkish medal.

He is not shown on the Sebastopol clasp roll, possibly because of his desertion before the rolls were made out.

Possibly entitled to the Maharajpoor Star whilst serving in the 16th Lancers. There are no medal rolls for this award known to be in existence, and the fact of his possibly being entitled is based on a careful study of the muster roll for the period and eliminating all those whose presence at the battle was doubtful.

Commemorations

Death & burial

Lummis and Wynn stated that he "Died on the 15th of June 1855..." Can find no further trace to March of 1865.


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