Enlisted at Hounslow on the 26th of February 1854.
Age: 19.
Height: 5' 7".
Trade: Labourer.
From Private to Corporal: 19th of February 1855.
He is shown on a Nominal Roll dated the 9th of November 1855 as being On Duty at Scutari from the 4th of November 1855.
From this he did not serve in Eupatoria with the regiment.
Corporal to Sergeant: 9th of February 1856.
Transferred to the 7th Hussars, "at his own request", as Private, on the 1st of September 1857 with the Regimental No. of 150.
From Private to Corporal: 1st of December 1857.
Corporal to Sergeant: 17th of March 1858.
Reduced to Private by a Regimental Court-martial on the 3rd of October 1860.
Joined the Depot at Maidstone from India on the 5th of March 1865
Discharged, "time expired", from Canterbury Depot on the 29th of June 1865. Served 12 years 22 days.
Conduct: "good". In possession of one Good Conduct badge.
Sent money from the Crimea to his sister, Mrs. Ball, of Ealing Grove, Middlesex.
Awarded a Special Campaign Pension (no date shown but would have been in the early 1890s.)
Entitled (according to the medal rolls) to the Crimean medal with clasps for Alma, Inkerman, Sebastopol and the Turkish medal.
The muster rolls for the October-December quarter of 1854 show no reason for him to be anything other than available for duty on the 25th of October, but neither Lummis and Wynne or the medal rolls held at the PRO credit him with the clasp for Balaclava, nor does his name on the Alma/Inkerman rolls have the addition of the capital letter "B" (believed to indicate the award of that particular clasp), only a written-in comment, "Regt. 27/10/56.".
However, a Nominal Return signed by Major Henry Holden shows some 45 men of the regiment were issued with their medals on the 7th of October 1855 in the Crimea with various clasps, and records Stops as being issued the medal with the clasps for Alma, Balaklava and Inkerman.
EJB: The roll is undated, but Major Holden did not join the regiment at Scutari until early December 1855.
Stops is shown at the October 1855 muster as being at the Balaclava depot along with some others, while the regiment was in Eupatoria. Only three men (including Stops) named in the list had remained in Balaclava at the time of the medal issue: one was in Scutari and the remainder had embarked with the regiment aboard the S. T. "Medway" for Eupatoria on the 9th of October.
This roll forms part of a series of documents, etc., under the title "Medals. Cavalry Division, Crimea 1854-6" that were retained by Colonel Charles Shute, A. A. G. of the Cavalry Division. They came onto the open market in 1997. This roll is currently in an English Collection. The PRO does not hold a copy.
Mutiny medal with clasp for Lucknow.
Served in the field in Oude, East Indies, from the 4th of February — 14th of May 1858, including the Siege of Lucknow, 2-16 of March 1858.
1871 Census
Leavesden Asylum, Watford.
Reuben Stops, aged 37, a "1st Class Attendant" at the Asylum, born Hendon, Middlesex.He was married to Jane Stops, aged 31, "a 2nd Class Attendant"born Hastings, Middlesex [sic]. [RM]
Death registered
The death of a "Reuben Stops", aged 37, is shown in the September quarter of the same year he appeared in the Census, 1871, in the Hampstead district.
This might be the same man, but it conflicts with information above concerning his pension in the 1890s. However, no trace of another man of this name can be found further than 1871.
1881 Census
Middlesex Lunatic Asylum, Norwood, Middlesex.
Jane Stops, 38, widow, Cook, born Sussex.
1891 Census
London County Asylum, Norwood, Middlesex.
Jane Stops, 48, widow, Head Cook, Servant in Asylum, born Battle, Sussex.
1901 Census
5 Rosedale Cottages, Hanwell, Middlesex.
Jane Stops, 61, widow, aunt to Alfred Steptoe, Head, born Battle, Sussex.
Census information for 1881, 1891 & 1901 kindly provided by Chris Poole.