LIVES OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE
The E.J. Boys Archive
Added 26.11.12. Minor edits 8.1.2014. Photographs added 16.6.15.
IN PROGRESS — NOT FOR PUBLICATION
1520, Private William SIMPSON — 4th Light Dragoons
Birth & early life
Born at Braintree, Essex.
Enlistment
Enlisted at Warwick on the 4th of February 1852.
Age: 19.
Height: 5' 7".
Trade: Iron-monger.
Service
Served in "D" Troop.
Sent to the General Depot at Scutari on the 25th of September 1854 and invalided to England on the 25th of December 1854.
Joined the Depot at Canterbury from Chatham on the 3rd of March 1855.
Attached to the Commissariat Corps as a Clerk 1st-30th of September 1859 and transferred to that corps on the 1st of December 1859.
Died at Hongkong on the 13th of January 1862.
Medals
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasps for the Alma, but he is not to be found on the Sebastopol clasp roll.
He is believed to have been presented with his Crimean medal by Queen Victoria at a ceremony on the Horse Guards Parade on the 18th of May 1855. His name does not appear on the Nominal Return of those present now in the PRO, but does on a similar roll which appeared in the United Services Magazine for June of 1855 and on that which appeared in the Illustrated London News, 26th of May 1855.
Sir John Tenniel: The distribution of Crimean Medals on Horse Guards Parade, 18th of May 1855.
Commemorations
Likenesses
He appears, with three others of his regiment, in a photograph taken, it is believed, especially for Queen Victoria, as the original is in the Royal Library at Windsor. Simpson is the man on the extreme right. (See copy of this in the 4th Hussar file.
(Click on image to enlarge)
Life after service
Death & burial
Died at Hongkong on the 13th of January 1862.
