Born at Kilbrin, near Mallow, Co. Cork.
Enlisted at Westminster on the 9th of June 1852.
Age: 17 years.
Height: 5' 8".
Trade: Draper.
Appearance: Fresh complexion. Hazel eyes. Auburn hair.
At Scutari from the 3rd of November to the 14 December 1854, and again from the 4th of April to the 11th of May 1855.
Extract of a letter written from the Crimea to his sister by Private Michael Sheehan, published in the Morning Chronicle, Tuesday, 13 February 1855:
Camp near Sebastopol, January 4, 1855
My Dearest and Loving Sister — I received your kind and welcome note on the 1st of January, and it gave me great pleasure to hear that you are all well and in good health, as it leaves me at present, thank God. I am very glad that you are taking care of yourself and keeping your situation, and I am also very thankful to your mistress for her kindness to you.
I am also glad to hear that father, and mother, and sisters are in good health; and as for me and all of us, we are as happy as possible, and enjoying good health, thank God. We have plenty to eat, and plenty of warm clothes for the winter; we are all cheerful and happy, and hope you are the same. The only thing we feel cold with is, waiting to have another spree with the Russians.
As for Sebastopol, we do not know when it will be taken; but it is as annoying to us as a big drum in an upstairs room, firing day and night, and we do not know whether we injure them or not, and they are the same with us, for the trenches hide our men from them; and if one of us chances to rise his head over the trench, there is not less than 50 shots fired at him at once.
Dear sister, you need not put but three stamps on the letter, for you put six on the last; and I will not receive your cousin's letters, for I have left Scutari.
Give my love to parents and friends, and accept the same yourself.
I will conclude, and remain your ever loving brother,
Michael Sheehan, 4th Light Dragoons.
[Source: Wendy Leahy, Shadows of Time website, http://shadowsoftime.co.nz/michaelsheehanletters1.html]
From Private to Corporal: 1st of September 1858.
Corporal to Sergeant: 20th of September 1860.
Discharged from Newbridge on the 21st of July 1863:
"Unfit for further service from tuberculosis of the right lung. Disease may lie dormant with care and he would be capable of earning a living at his previous occupation of draper."
Served 11 years 11 days.
In Turkey and the Crimea: 1 year 10 months.
Conduct: "a good soldier, and if not promoted would now be in the possession of three Good Conduct badges."
Once entered in the Regimental Defaulter's book. Never tried by Court-martial.
Aged 30 years 11 months on discharge.
A memo was sent to him to attend a medical board on the 18th of July 1865: "Man attended, and sent to an infirmary on the 23rd of July 1865."
Awarded a pension of 6d. per day, "conditional", until the 10th of August 1866. This was made "permanent" on the 11th of May 1866.
His pension was made permanent (6d.) per day from the 31st of July 1876, and a letter to this effect was sent to the Acting Secretary, Hudson Bay Company, on the 8th of May 1877.
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasps for Alma and Sebastopol.
Documents confirm the award of the Crimean and Turkish medals.
To live at 57, Middleton Street, Clerkenwell, London, on discharge, but he was living at Brighton in early 1873, and in Montreal, Canada, from the 1st of July 1874.
He was in Manitoba, Canada, from the 1st of July 1874.
The Annual Report (1865) of the Army and Navy Employment for Pensioners Society, shows a position was obtained for him as an Asylum Attendant at an annual salary of £25, plus board and lodging and washing, in July of that year.
Admitted to In-Pension at Chelsea Royal Hospital on the 1st of January 1884. At the time of his entering the Royal Hospital Chelsea he was stated to be 50 years of age, his character was "good", and he had "no wife or family..."
Died at the Chelsea Royal Hospital on the 24th of March 1886. He was buried in the Pensioners' Plot in Brompton Cemetery. This was a common grave, no headstone being erected.