Born in Glasgow.
Enlisted at Manchester on the 3rd of November 1854.
Age: 18.
Height: 5' 8". [PB: WL says 5' 5 and seven-eighths inches !]
Trade: Labourer.
Joined the regiment in the Crimea on the 25th of May 1855.
"Absent": 15th-29th of September 1856.
Confined: 1st-15th of October, tried by a Regimental Court-martial.
In Gosport Military Prison: 16th of October — 17th of November 1856.
Discharged, on the "Reduction of the Regiment", from Brighton on the 24th of November 1856.
Served 2 years 21 days, but only 2 years 5 days service "to count."
Conduct: "Bad". Not in possession of any Good Conduct badges.
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasp for Sebastopol.
Not recorded by Lummis and Wynn.
In the Regimental Museum of the Royal Hussars is a small wooden case containing a Crimean medal with the clasp for Sebastopol only and named in upright characters to "Edward Rafter. 4th. Lt. Dgns", a Turkish Crimean medal named to "E. Refter. 8th Hussars." [PB: "Refter"?] (the suspension is not the original type), and a button cleaning brush with "8H" and the number "37" on it. On two small brass plates on the front are "Enlisted 1853" and "Discharged 1870".
There was no one named Edward Refter [PB: "Refter"?] on the Crimean campaign medal or other rolls of the 8th Hussars, but there was a 179 Edward Rafter who served in India during the Mutiny but was only entitled to the medal without clasp.
179 Edward Rafter had enlisted at Liverpool on the 19th of January 1858 and joined the Cavalry Depot at Canterbury on the 21st. He was then shown as being 20 years of age and 5' 8" in height.
He is next shown on the muster roll of the regiment as being one of a draft of 30 men who landed at Bombay on the 8th of December 1858 from England and marched up-country to join the HQ of the regiment at Camp Chupprah on the 28th of December 1858.
He returned to England aboard the "Renown" on the 12th of January 1864, arriving in England on the 2nd of May. He had been employed for some while when in India as a "Hospital Orderly", and was again so in England from the 1st of October 1864 to the 31st of March 1868.
He is shown as being discharged from Dundalk on the 21st of January 1870, being given a "Free" discharge, having completed 12 years' service, his place of birth being shown as Liverpool and his trade that of a labourer. He intended to live in Manchester after discharge.
So, was he and Edward Rafter of the 4th Light Dragoons one and the same man, having re-enlisted? Did he perhaps not claim his Turkish Crimean medal when due, but when it was finally issued had the regiment named on it in which he was then serving? If he was, he had decided to improve his Conduct: being in possession of a "good" character and two good conduct badges.