Born on the Island of Corfu, Greece
Enlisted at Brighton on the 19th of March 1851.
Age: 18.
Height: 5' 10".
Trade: Grocer.
Appearance: Fresh complexion. Grey eyes. Brown hair.
Embarked for the Crimea aboard the H.T. "Shooting Star " on the 25th of April 1854.
At Scutari General Depot from the 22nd of September and sent to rejoin the regiment on the 3rd of October 1854.
From Private to Corporal: 28th of October 1854.
At Scutari again from the 4th of April — 11th of May 1855.
Corporal to Sergeant: 14th of February 1856.
Embarked for India from Cork aboard the S.S. "Great Britain" on the 8th of October 1857.
Left sick at Bombay during January — March of 1858.
Appointed to Troop Sergeant Major on the 4th of August 1861.
Re-engaged in India for a further 12-year period of service on the 17th of January 1863
Discharged from Balinrobe, Ireland, on the 23rd of December 1873.
"Free, to pension after 21 years' service."
Served 22 years 258 days. In Turkey and the Crimea 2 years
In India: 6 years 3 months.
Conduct: "very good". Not in possession of any Good Conduct badges when promoted but would now have had five. Never tried by Court-martial.
In receipt of 1d. per day for "good swordsmanship."
Aged 40 years 9 months on discharge.
Awarded a pension of 2/- per day.
To reside — c/o. The Corps of Commissionaires, 419 Strand, London. He was still living in London in 1875.
Documents confirm the award of the Crimean medal with clasps for Inkerman and Sebastopol, the Turkish Medal and the Long Service & Good Conduct medal.
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasps for Alma and Sebastopol.
Can find no trace on the Mutiny medal roll.
Awarded the Long Service & Good Conduct on the 17th of April 1869 with a gratuity of £15. Awarded the Meritorious Service Medal with an annuity of £5. on the 18th of September 1910 — Vide War Office letter dated the 26th of January 1910.
Next of kin: Wife, Louisa Somerville.
He is shown on the Regimental "Married roll" from the 12th of June 1866. They had three children by the 30th of April 1873.
Frances M. Born at Hulme in 1867.
Louisa. Born at Belturbet in 1869.
William T. Born at Balinrobe in 1873.
1881 Census
No 3, Exchange Court, The Strand, St Martin's in the Fields
The 1881 Census Returns shows him as aged 48 years, a Commissionare, born in the Ionian Islands, Greece, with his wife, Louisa, aged 39 years, born in the parish of St. Andrew the Less, Cambridge, and four children, three daughters and a son, their ages ranging from 13 years to 3 years.
From Colonel L.V. Pring, the Commandant, comes the information that he joined the Corps of Commissionaires on the 16th of December 1873. His Corps No. — as worn — was 299 and his Corps Succession No. was 2199. He is shown as leaving the Corps "on death" on the 4th of February 1920. This date is shown in the main Register and also on a separate 8th Hussar Regimental Roll.
(He had actually retired from the Corps with the rank of Staff-Sergeant in 1899, with a pension of £5 per quarter.
The Army Chaplain's Baptismal Registers at St. Catherine's House confirm he was born in the Ionian Islands (but not in which regiment his father served).
The Deaths Register shows his death in the Lambeth District of London during the January Quarter of 1920, aged 86 years.