In the rear corner of a photo taken at the 1913 wedding of my great-aunt Grace, an elderly soldier with full white moustache stares solemnly at the camera. He is the bride’s 80-year-old grandfather, and my great-great-grandfather, William Patrick Walsh (also known as Welsh or Welch), a Crimean War veteran.
William was the first child of Irish immigrants Timothy Walsh and Joanna Power, born 2 Nov 1832 in Marylebone, London, England, and baptized two weeks later at St. James Roman Catholic Church, Spanish Place, London.
On 28 Aug 1849, at age 16, William joined the army, claiming to be 18. At that time, military service was voluntary and army life was not a terribly attractive prospect. One of the enticements recruiting sergeants used to encourage enlistment was the payment of one shilling, which could represent several days’ wages for a low-paid labourer. Acceptance of the coin was referred to as “taking the King’s shilling” (or Queen’s depending on the reigning monarch) and was a commitment to go before a magistrate and officially sign up. As a further inducement, a cash bounty was paid upon enlistment, with the amount being based on the term committed to. In 1812, for example, a commitment to lifetime service in the army would garner a new recruit £23 17s 6d, a sizeable sum. Out of the bounty, however, soldiers were expected to purchase their uniform and other initial equipment so there was often little left by the time they joined their battalion.
William signed on for 12 years, attesting for the 4th Queen’s Own Regiment of Light Dragoons (later the 4th Hussars), and received a bounty of £5 15s 2p.
It appears William may have had some difficulty adjusting to living under military authority. Just three years into his tour of duty he was courtmartialed for “insults & insulting language”—one can presume directed towards a superior—and sentenced to 56 days’ imprisonment with hard labour.
Released from prison in November 1852, he seems to have kept out of serious trouble for the remainder of his time in the army. Although his discharge papers reported that “he is not in possession of any good conduct badges,” his character was stated as “that of a good soldier.”
In July 1854, the 4th Light Dragoons embarked for Crimea where they were involved in several major battles including Alma in September, Balaklava in October and Inkerman in November, as well as the 11-month siege of Sevastopol. William was awarded the Crimean Medal with clasps for Alma, Inkerman and Sevastopol but it appears he did not ride in the Charge of the Light Brigade at the Battle of Balaklava. Family lore has it that he had been injured or ill at the time and upon returning to his regiment found that someone had taken his horse.
On 5 Jul 1860, William married 25-year-old Jessie Kemp in Chorlton, Lancashire. His regiment was then stationed at the Cavalry Barracks in Hulme, Manchester, Lancashire, and Jessie was living nearby at 4 Robson Street, Vine Street, Hulme.
Jessie had been born in Woolwich, London, where her father, Alexander Kemp, was then stationed with the Royal Artillery. In late 1835, just a few months after her birth, her father was discharged and the family moved to Scotland, where both her parents were born. It is unknown how Jessie came to be living in Manchester in 1860 since her father had died a decade earlier and it’s likely her mother was still in Scotland. But her brother George Kemp was also in Manchester in that timeframe, having attested for the Royal Artillery there in 1859.
(William’s father is erroneously recorded as “John” Welch; his father’s name was actually Timothy)
At age 29, William completed his 12-year military commitment and applied for discharge, which was granted 24 Oct 1861.
William and Jessie were still living in Chorlton at the time their first child, William, was born in 1863, but by 1866 the family had relocated to Gibraltar where William had taken up a post as assistant warden at Her Majesty’s Prison. Their next three children, Charlotte (1867), my great-grandmother Joanna (1870) and George (1872), were all born on “The Rock.” In April 1873, William and several other employees of the prison were discharged, their services no longer required.
Returning to England, he had by September secured a position as sub-warden at the Middlesex House of Correction, Coldbath Fields, in London. This facility was notorious for its inhumane treatment of prisoners including a silent system where prisoners were forbidden from communicating with each other and the use of a penal treadmill, a cruel means of imposing hard labour as punishment. William lasted there less than four months, resigning in late December.
With favourable employment references. William was quickly re-employed as a policeman on the Midland Railway where he remained for the next eight years.
On 18 Sep 1874, just a year after their return to London, William and Jessie’s 10-year-old son William died of pulmonary congestion, no doubt linked to the extreme air pollution in the city. In the 1870s, London had been nicknamed “The Big Smoke” due to the thick fog of sulphuric acid that hung over the city, a combination of water vapour and emissions containing soot and sulphur dioxide from factory smokestacks and the burning of coal in homes. Breathing in this toxic fog was unavoidable and was a leading cause of respiratory illness.
Into this environment in 1879 arrived William and Jessie’s fifth and last child, Bessie.
Resigning from the railway in September 1882, William secured the job of timekeeper in the restaurant department at Grosvenor Gallery Library in February 1883. But he was out of work yet again when the restaurant closed a year and a half later. Again he left with reference letters attesting to his good character and work ethic.
By 1891, William was working as a tram conductor in London, and on the 1901 census, at age 68, his occupation was recorded as “casual caretaker.”
William’s wife, Jessie, died on 3 May 1905 at their home in London of senile decay and exhaustion. She was 70 years old.
Following Jessie’s death, William spent his final years living in the Royal Hospital Chelsea, a retirement home for army veterans.
William died on 2 Dec 1914 at the age of 82. In the memory of one of his granddaughters, his death came after he was attacked while being robbed when out for a walk. This, however, proved to be wholly inaccurate, his death certificate revealing that he actually died of “shock, heart failure, internal haemorrhage, fracture of the ribs and spine, the result of a fall out of a window at the Royal Hospital Chelsea.”
A newspaper report of the subsequent coroner’s inquest provides more detail surrounding the circumstances of his death. Suffering from dementia, William experienced memory loss and was prone to wandering. On the evening of his death, he had gone missing and a search by hospital staff eventually found him lying on the grass, still alive but seriously injured, having fallen about 20 feet from a second-storey window. He died about an hour later. It appears he had wandered into a bathroom that had a large window with a view to the road and he may have leaned out to watch troops marching by. And as it was a low window and he was tall (almost 5’11”), it was speculated that he may have lost his balance and fallen out. With no evidence to suggest any suicidal tendency on his part, the coroner’s jury ruled his death accidental. A sad end to a long life.
William was laid to rest in London’s Islington Cemetery.
Great job Nancy as always.