Born in London.
Enlisted at London on the 27th of August 1849.
Age: 18.
Height: 5' 8".
Trade: Labourer.
Tried by a District Court-martial at Ipswich on the 22nd of September 1852 for "using insulting and abusive language to a superior officer." He was sentenced to 56 days' imprisonment, with hard labour.
Sent to Scutari on the 3rd of February and rejoined the regiment on the 11th of May 1855.
Discharged, "time expired", from Dublin on the 24th of October 1861.
Conduct: "good".
In possession of two Good Conduct badges.
Awarded a "Special Campaign Pension", no date is shown, but probably in the early 1890s.
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasps for Alma, Inkerman and Sebastopol.
A "M. Welch" was named on the 1877 list but not in the 1879 revised list of members of the Balaclava Commemoration Society.
1881 Census
5, Upper Thames Street, St. Andrews by Wardrobe, Middlesex.
A man of this name, aged 51, is shown in the 1881 Census as a Lodger, Widower, General Labourer, born in Blackfriars, London.
A William Welch who had served in the 4th Light Dragoons entered the Chelsea Royal Hospital on the 14th of July 1899. He was said to have served 12 years, was in possession of a pension of 9d. per day, and aged 77 years 11 months, being "Too old for work," and to have formerly lived at No. 137 Rathcoole Gardens, Hornsey, London, N8. He was appointed a (Retired) Sergeant at the Hospital on the 28th of December 1913.
He died on the 2nd of December 1914, and was buried in Brookwood Cemetery. No headstone was erected.