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

1120, Private Benjamin SOLEY — 17th Lancers

Birth & early life

Born in Ealing on the 18th of April 1831.

The Parish Records of St. Mary's, Ealing, show Benjamin Soley was baptised there on the 12th of May 1833 by the Revd. W. Peart, Curate. He was the son of Benjamin Soley, a labourer, and his wife Harriet. No date of birth is recorded (this was usual at this period). He was one of five known children born into the family (three boys and two girls), he being the second son.

[CP, April 2014: thanks to the recent greater availability of census data, it now seems as though there were 8 children: 3 girls and 5 boys.]

1841 Census

Duke of Kent's Barracks, Ealing.

Benjamin Soley, 45, Agricultural Labourer.

Harriett Soley, 34.

Charlotte, 9; Benjamin, 7; Rachel, 5; William, 3; Harriett, 1.

[PB: What might explain the fact that his family was living in the barracks, but his father was employed as an agicultural labourer?]

Death registered

Harriett Soley [sister], December Quarter 1842, aged 3, Brentford.

1851 Census

Caroline Place, Ealing.

Benjamin Soley, 48, Farm Labourer, born Datchett, Bucks.

Harriett Soley, 45, born Ealing.

Charlotte Soley, 20, Out of Service, born Ealing.

Benjamin Soley, 18, Labourer, born Ealing.

Robert Soley, 16, Labourer, born Ealing.

William Soley, 14, Bird Boy [i.e. employed scaring birds from crops], born Ealing.

Henry Soley, 7, Bird Boy, born Ealing.

James Soley, 3, born Ealing.

Enlistment

Enlisted at the old Regimental Depot in Mount Avenue on the 11th of May 1852.

Age: 19.

Height: 5' 9".

Trade: Labourer.

Service

"Absent" on the 19th/20th of March 1853, as a result of which he forfeited 2 days' pay, and was "In cells" from the 21st to the 27th of March.

Severely wounded in action at Balaclava, 25th of October 1854.

At Scutari General Depot from the 10th of May and sent to rejoin the regiment on the 24th of May 1855.

Embarked for India from Cork aboard the S.S. "Great Britain" on the 8th of 0ctober 1857.

The musters for July-September 1858 show him as being "On Field Service" from September of the period

Discharge & pension

Discharged, "time expired, and on the completion of his limited engagement", from Colchester on the 27th of May 1865.

Served 13 years 17 days.

In Turkey and the Crimea: 2 years. In India: 7 years 1 month, although his documents credit him with an additional six months service there.

Conduct: "Good — and temperate".

In possession of two Good Conduct badges (awarded in January of 1861 and 1863). Never tried by Court-martial.

Intending to live at Ealing, Middlesex on discharge.

Medals

Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasps for Alma, Balaclava, Inkerman, and Sebastopol, and the Turkish medal.

Can find no trace on the Mutiny medal roll, although his documents credit him with it.

Commemorations

Member of the Balaclava Commemoration Society in 1877 and 1879.

Signed the Loyal Address to the Queen in 1887.

Attended the Annual Dinners in 1890, 1892, 1893, 1895, 1897 and 1899.

He appears on a photograph taken after the Dinner in 1890 at Alexandra Palace. (There is a copy in the 17th Lancer files. This will eventually be scanned and uploaded.)

He was known as "Any Old Iron", from his habit of singing this song at the Annual Dinners.

[PB, April 2014:

Can we find a source for this claim? The song is usually credited to Charles....., and dated 1911. But it seems quite likely that it circulated beforehand, and only been copyrighted or committed to print then? There is a recording of the music hall star Harry Champion singing "Any Old Iron" here, and the lyrics can be read here

(accessed 23 April 2014). The date of the recording is ?. But Champion, whose voice was clearly already [ast it s best, was by this time 72?. Had he originally sung it many years previously? Incidentally, it has been argued that the song "contains coded gay content". Whether Soley and fellow combatants knew this (if it is indeed true) we do not as yet know. See . Rather [appositely], the word "iron" is said to be an abbreviation of the rhyming slang phrase "iron hoof", for "poof". See e.g. http://www.theguardian.com/friday_review/story/0, 3605, 448635, 00.html. Well, possibly. But I also wonder whether the lyrics might have been resonant — the "old iron" being medals? There are other references in the lyrics that might also have resonated, including the Lord Mayor, old Colonels. But who knows?

He was a pensioner of the Roberts Fund, from which he received a total of £49/17/6d.

In 1890, he received £20 from the Light Brigade Relief Fund. [CP]

In 1894 Soley's decline, and absence of an army pension, was noticed in a question in the House of Commons. The Secretary of State for War, Henry Campbell-Bannerman, was asked whether he would consider enlarging the sum allowed for to give immediate relief to all who needed it, so that "these old soldiers ...should be enabled to get a living without the scandal of compelling them to go into the workhouse". Among these men was:

"Benjamin Soley, 17th Lancers, in the Balaclava Charge and wounded in three places, has Crimean medal but no pension, breaks breaks stones and does other odd work on the roads, but can do little as he has a Russian bullet in his leg...

Mr. Campbell-Bannerman: I have caused inquiry to be made into these cases. As regards their Army service, the facts had been fairly stated...except that we have no record of the bullet in Soley's leg. Both men have been registered for several months as eligible, if destitute, for special pension; but as there is a large number of applicants so registered with claims equally good and urgent, it is impossible to say when their turn for a pension may come. The selection rests with the Chelsea Commissioners.

Soley is eligible for a Balaclava pension when a vacancy occurs, and applied last month, but neglected to reply to questions put to him as to his private earnings. A considerable additional sum would be required if relief were given immediately to all applicants who had had Crimean or Indian Mutiny service and had served in all for the requisite period of ten years...

[I]t must be remembered that the men referred to had no claim to a pension as of right, inasmuch as they had not completed the necessary period of service when they retired. There as, hoever, a compassionate pension given so as to avoid the scandal mentioned...

Sir D. Macfarlane asked whether the capital of the Patriotic Fund was still intact, and whether it was not for the benefit of Crimean soldiers that that fund was started.

Mr. Campbell-Bannerman said that was a fund over which he had no control."






(Click on image to enlarge)





He is shown as having been awarded a "Special Campaign Pension" (no date given, but probably in the early 1890s). The comment on his being "wounded in three places" is borne out by an entry in the Casualty Lists as being "Wounded severely", but doubts must arise as to their severity, as he was present at the battle of Inkermann only eleven days later, and there is no entry in the muster rolls as to his having been sent to Scutari after Balaclava.

Further detailed medal information archived.

Life after service

Marriage registered

Benjamin Soley to Matilda Nicholls, December Quarter 1865, Brentford.

He married Matilda Nicholls at Christ Church, Ealing, on the 26th of November 1865. He is shown on the marriage certificate as 30 years of age, a bachelor, a Labourer and former Soldier. His father was named as Benjamin Soley, a Labourer. His wife was then aged 25, a spinster and Servant. Her father is named as James Nicholls, a Gardener. (There is a copy of this in the "Certificates" file. This will eventually be scanned and uploaded.)

Births registered

Charles Soley, September Quarter 1870, Wandsworth.

[PB: Why Wandsworth and not Battersea?]

Louisa Soley, March Quarter 1875, Brentford.

Nellie Soley, 1877, Brentford.

Emma Soley, December Quarter 1880, Brentford.

Phillis Soley, March Quarter 1883, Brentford.

1871 Census

22, Everett Street, Battersea.

Benjamin Soley, 37, Labourer, born Ealing.

Matilda Soley, 30, Southall.

Charles Soley, 10 months, Battersea.

One visiting relative was also included.

[PB, April 2014:

We can see from the 1871 Census and the ages and birthplaces of his children that Soley moved to Nine Elms, Battersea, a few years soon after his discharge in 1869. Why?

Everett Street was one of small enclave of poorly built back-to-back houses surrounded by the Thames, the Nine Elms Brewery, the notorious London Gas Light Works (where a number of men had been killed in an explosion in 18??), and the London & South Western Railway. Everett Street itself backed onto the ?-foot wall that surrounded the works.

It was locally described as an island, an impenetrable area spiralling into slumdom. [ed] to the north by the Thames, to the east by the immense gasworks (17 acres? high wall? and to the south and east by the railway. [A] warren of streets was sandwiched from 1862 between the London Gas Light Works, the Nine Elms Brewery, This impenetrable warren of streets spiralled into slumdom, earning the nickname of the 'island' and the scrutiny of reformers. As Charles Booth put it in 1902, quoting the notes taken a few years earlier by one of his researchers who had toured the area with a local policeman:

"The houses are two storey and flush with the pavement... The streets...all show the usual signs of squalor in an exaggerated form: broken windows, filthy cracked plaster, dirty ragged children, and drink-sodden women. Several of the children were without shoes and stockings, one girl of about five with nothing on but a shirt (it was summer), and the police say that it is quite common to see the small children running about stark naked.

The original notes add: "In hot weather the people, especially in Everett St and in the Gas Works will often bring Mattresses out and sleep in the street " [I]n spite of the dirt the children as ? looked well fed and healthy.... Many if not most of the inhabitants of them streets earn good wages as gas workers, coal porters, cotiers?, etc, and almost the sole cause of their destitution is drink." So perhaps the explanation is to be found in the cheapness of the rents and the abundance of work available in the area, even to unskilled men such as Soley: Soley himself, as his discharge papers show, was temperate, which may have protected him and his family to some extent.





Everett Streetin which Soley lived, as shown on Booth's map of 1889-91. Most of the "island" is coloured blue and black, for "

(Click on image to enlarge)





In the twentieth century Battersea Council was keen to raze and rehouse the island site, but its scale was believed too large for the Borough to manage and it was left to the Luftwaffe to administer the coup de grace.

He must have returned to Ealing at some time in the 1870s, where he was employed for a time as Farm Labourer.

A little later, he was employed by the Ealing Council as a Roadman [i.e. he kept local roads in good repair], a job he is said to have kept for 24 years.

blockquote>

1881 Census

4, Cottage, Brent Side, Ealing.

Benjamin Soley, 47, Farm Labourer, born Ealing.

Matilda Soley, 40, Southall.

Charles Soley, 10, Scholar, Battersea.

Louisa Soley, 6, Scholar, Ealing.

Nelli [sic] Soley, 4, Ealing.

Emma Soley, 6 months, Ealing.

1891 Census

19, Castlebar Mews, Ealing.

Benjamin Soley, 57, Labourer, born Ealing.

Matilda Soley, 50, Laundress, Southall.

Louisa Soley, 16, servant, Ealing.

Emma Soley, 10, Scholar, Ealing.

Phyllis Soley, 8, Scholar, Ealing.

Marriage registered

Louisa Soley [daughter] to William Pearce, December Quarter 1898, Brentford.

1901 Census

19, Castlebar Mews, Ealing.

Benjamin Soley, 67, Roadman, born Ealing.

Matilda Soley, 60, born Southall.

Emma Soley, 21, Laundrywoman, born Ealing.

[N.B. St Stephen's Almshouses were literally a few doors away.]

__________

Flat 60, Carlyle Road, Ealing.

Louisa Pearce [daughter], 26, married, living on own means, born Ealing.

Including 1 visitor.

Birth registered

Ethel May Pearce [granddaughter], June Quarter 1907, Brentford.

A Membership List of the Balaclava Society kept by James Wightman when he was the Secretary shows his address as being "Near the School, Ofenir Road [sic], Ealing, Middlesex [date?].

Death & burial

Deaths registered

Matilda Soley, age 64, March Quarter 1906, Brentford.

Benjamin Soley, June Quarter 1906, aged 75, Brentford.

Died on 18th of April 1906 at 50 Carlyle Road, South Ealing, London.

His obituary notice in the Middlesex County Times for the 28th of April 1906 states:

"SOLEY. On the 18th of April, at 50 Carlyle Road, South Ealing (the residence of his daughter, Mrs. Pearce), Benjamin Soley, late 17th Lancers, on his 75th birthday. — Also Matilda Soley, wife of the above, who died on January 30th, aged 64 years."

Extract from the Middlesex and County Times, 21st of April 1906:

"Death of a Crimean Veteran"

"One of the last survivors of the famous charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava, named Benjamin Soley, died at 50, Carlyle Road, Ealing, on Tuesday, on his seventy-fifth birthday.

As a trooper in the 17th Lancers he served through the whole of the war in the Crimea, and besides being one of the "Noble Six Hundred" fought at the battles of the Alma, Inkermann and Sevastopol, gaining the Crimean medal with four clasps. Another of his medals was won in the Turkish campaign and he also saw service during the Indian Mutiny and was present at the siege of Delhi [sic].

He joined the Army at the age of nineteen, enlisting at the old regimental depot which was at one time in Mount Avenue. Born and bred in Ealing, he returned to the town after leaving the colours, and was later employed as a roadman by the Town Council, being in the employ of the local authority for twenty-four years.

He was well-known to many of the older residents in the district. His wife died soon after Christmas and Soley never fully recovered from the shock her death caused him, and had been ailing ever since.

The funeral will take place at the Cemetery on Tuesday, and full military honours will be paid to the memory of the deceased soldier."

Extracts from the Ealing and Hanwell Post, Saturday 28th of April 1906:

"The Death of Trooper Soley — Military Funeral"

"Amid signs of general respect and sympathy the funeral took place on Tuesday of Benjamin Soley, who was one of the last survivors of the Light Brigade, which had so gloriously distinguished itself in the famous charge at Balaclava. The funeral aroused much patriotic feeling and respect amongst the inhabitants of Ealing, and persons of all classes, young and old, rich and poor, feeble and active, turned out in their thousands to pay homage to the mortal remains of the Balaclava hero.

The funeral procession was headed by Inspector Andrews (chief officer of the Ealing sub-division of police) and was composed of the band of the 21st Lancers, a contingent of local fireman, a gun-carriage, on which rested the body of the deceased soldier, and at the rear three carriages containing the family mourners.

The cortege was accompanied by a crowd numbering several hundreds and everywhere en-route keen interest was manifested by numerous spectators, who eagerly craned their necks from open windows or gathered in knots on the footpaths. Heads were respectfully bared by men and boys of all classes as the procession pursued its mournful way, and the utmost order prevailed.

A crowd of considerable dimensions had gathered outside of St. Stephens Church and on the arrival of the procession the police very wisely restrained many people from entering the church, a precaution which prevented it from being dangerously overcrowded.

The brief service was then conducted by the Revd. Dr. B.S. Tupholme, the coffin, covered by a Union Jack, surmounted by many floral wreaths in which red geraniums, arum lilies and narcissi predominated being placed before the chancel. It was significant of the sense of loyalty and respect which was aroused by the occasion that the congregation was of such an unusually mixed nature. There must have been many amongst its rougher element to whom the interior of a church was such a revelation.

At the completion of the service, the coffin, carried by four firemen, was again placed on the gun-carriage outside, and the procession, now swelled to over a thousand, commenced the journey to the Ealing Cemetery, where the deceased was to be interred. Here, to the strains of the 'Dead March', impressively rendered by the band, the coffin, again borne aloft on the shoulders of the fireman, was carried to the graveside."

See also the copy of his funeral report taken from the Ealing Gazette,e 28th of April 1906, in the 17th Lancer file. In time this will be scanned and uploaded.

Both he and his wife, Matilda (who died on the 30th of January 1906), were buried in Grave Plot No. 23DC in the Ealing and Old Brentford Cemetery. No headstone was erected over the grave. (There is copy of a photograph of him in later life, of his funeral procession, and also photographs of the gravesite, grave-area and of the Cemetery entrance, in the 17th Lancer file. These will eventually be scanned and uploaded.)

In 1954 an article on the Centenary of the Charge a report of his funeral was reprinted in a local newspaper. Two of his grand-children were reported to be still living in Ealing. (See copy in the 17th Lancer file.)

Further information

1911 Census

50, Carlyle Road, South Ealing.

William Pearce, 38, Carman, Ealing Borough Council, born Perivale.

Louisa Pearce [daughter], 36, born Ealing.

Ethel May Pearce, 3, born Ealing.

The editors are very pleased to note that number of members of the Soley clan have contacted the EJBA over the years:

In 1990 a great-great-granddaughter of Soley's, living in Wiltshire, wrote to say she possessed several items of interest. These included a copy of his marriage certificate, newspaper reports of his death and funeral other than those already known, the form advising him how to fill in the claim form for the Light Brigade Relief Fund, dated the 26th of March 1892 (which had just been taken over by the Patriotic Fund), the menu of the Jubilee Commemoration Dinner held at St. James's Hall, London, on the 25th October 1897, an invitation card for the Annual Dinner of the Survivors held at the same venue in October of 1902, and a page from a magazine showing the list of those attending the Jubilee celebrations given by T.H. Roberts at his Fleet Street offices in June of 1897, as well as copies of some of the letters written to Mr. Roberts from the men named, on accepting the invitation.

In 1994, another member of the Soley family, living in Windsor, came into possession of papers left by his deceased father and claiming Benjamin Soley as his great-uncle. (His ancestor was William Soley, born on the 19th of August and baptised in St. Mary's Church, Ealing, on the 10th of September 1837.)

Also in 1994, a correspondent living in New Zealand wrote to say he was a direct descendant (as a great-great grandson) of Benjamin Soley through a son, Charles Soley, and his daughter, Florence, who had originally emigrated to New Zealand circa 1968, with her second son, and who died in 1976. This branch of the family possessed a very comprehensive family tree and an original pawn-ticket that Charles Soley had been given when pawning his father's medals about a month after his father's death (said by the family to pay for the funeral), which was never redeemed.

In November 2011 two of Soley's great-great-granddaughters separately contacted the Archive seeking further information about their ancestor. It transpired that they were cousins, sharing a grandmother in Soley's granddaughter Phyllis. Benjamin Soley's daughter Emma married William Webber in the December Quarter of 1902. By 1911 there were 3 children: Alma, Frederick and Lilly. The birth of another daughter, Phyllis A., was registered in Hackney in the March Quarter of 1912. [Genealogical information kindly provided by Chris Poole 28/11/11.]

References & acknowledgements

Marriage, birth and death registrations, and additional Census information for 1841, 1851, 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901 and 1911 kindly provided by Chris Poole.