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  #21  
Old 07-03-2015, 02:29 PM
janwhin janwhin is offline
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One Waterloo local man who fell at Waterloo was the uncle of Grace Darling. The Alnwick Mercury of 26 August 1882 records the passing of his sister at Beadnell:
"In our obituary column of this week is recorded the death at Beadnell of Mrs Mary Air, at the advanced age of 100 years. Deceased's maiden name was Mary Reed Horsley, and she was aunt to the heroine of the Farne Islands, Grace Horsley Darling.
Her brother Alexander Horsley,a native of Bamburgh, was a soldier and served throughout the whole of the Peninsular War. In 1810 he was billeted with a recruiting party at the Crown Inn, Alnwick, and was ultimately amongst those who fell at the Battle of Waterloo."
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  #22  
Old 07-03-2015, 04:29 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by janwhin View Post
One Waterloo local man who fell at Waterloo was the uncle of Grace Darling. The Alnwick Mercury of 26 August 1882 records the passing of his sister at Beadnell:
"In our obituary column of this week is recorded the death at Beadnell of Mrs Mary Air, at the advanced age of 100 years. Deceased's maiden name was Mary Reed Horsley, and she was aunt to the heroine of the Farne Islands, Grace Horsley Darling.
Her brother Alexander Horsley,a native of Bamburgh, was a soldier and served throughout the whole of the Peninsular War. In 1810 he was billeted with a recruiting party at the Crown Inn, Alnwick, and was ultimately amongst those who fell at the Battle of Waterloo."
Nice find Janwhin. I had a go at trying to find locals that served at Waterloo in the newspaper database, expecting any obituary of a Waterloo vet to certainly mention the battle but found nothing. Nevertheless I still think we are only scratching the surface regarding vets of the Peninsular wars generally; there will be many more with all documentary evidence lost.
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  #23  
Old 07-03-2015, 05:11 PM
janwhin janwhin is offline
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The odd ones I'm picking up in the newspapers tend to have ended their days in the workhouse or been aristocrats.
One I've found is a nice one, Alnwick Mercury, 1 April 1863:
"An unfortunate and fatal accident occurred at Alnwick on Wednesday, the 25th ult., by which an old man, named James Davison, lost his life........The deceased was 82 years of age, had served many years in the early part of his life in the Coldstream Guards, was an out-pensioner of Chelsea, held a Peninsular medal, with seven clasps, had been through nearly the whole of the Peninsular War, and was present with Nelson at the battle of Copenhagen in 1801. The clasps on his medal also indicated that he was at the storming of San Sebastian and Cuidad Rodrigo, and at the battles of Vittoria, Salamanca, Fuentes d'Onor, Busaco, Talavera, Badajos and Bayonne....."
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  #24  
Old 07-03-2015, 05:21 PM
janwhin janwhin is offline
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Well, I've had a bit more luck by searching under "Peninsular War". Alnwick Mercury, 1 August 1857:
"The Rev. Mr Roberts, of Shilbottle, has presented Mr Charles Ormond, of this town, who served in the Rifle Brigade during the Peninsular war, with a splendid pocket knife of ten blades, with the following inscription on a silver shield:-"A very humble token of English gratitude for a soldier's heroic services at Talavera, Busaco, Fuentes d-Onora, Cuidad Rodrigo, Badajos, Salamanca, Vittoria, Pyrenees, St Sebastian, Nivelle, Nive, Orthes, Toulouse, and Waterloo". This brave old veteran prefers two other claims for bars to his Peninsular medal, which we believe are at present under investigation in the proper quarter."
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  #25  
Old 07-03-2015, 05:41 PM
leslie leslie is offline
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Seem to remember an article (Gazette???} re a grave in Alnwick to a Waterloo vet! It was to be restored or were looking for funds to restore it , but cannot find Article now , Could have been on line article! anyone else see this was in last couple of months!!
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  #26  
Old 08-03-2015, 09:56 AM
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The Peninsula medal (Military General Service Medal) is a rare one, even though the army at the time was large: an old page I wrote on my medal site explains why. Pic of three I have sold over the years too. Prices for multi clasp medals kick off at about £1k, and the sky's the limit!


Quote:
Seem to remember an article (Gazette???} re a grave in Alnwick to a Waterloo vet! It was to be restored or were looking for funds to restore it , but cannot find Article now , Could have been on line article! anyone else see this was in last couple of months!!

http://www.northumberlandgazette.co....hero-1-7090609
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  #27  
Old 08-03-2015, 10:12 AM
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Just for perspective, if you condense a list of all the actual recipients of the medal into book form you get this, the Mullen roll, average of about 40 names per page. Just medal and bars, no home town recorded unfortunately :

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  #28  
Old 08-03-2015, 10:23 AM
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There are a number of soldiers of this period in the service documents archive with Alnwick as a birth town.

As for our parishes I would be surprised if we did not have a few Peninsular vets in Warkworth churchyard?
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  #29  
Old 08-03-2015, 10:31 AM
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A percentage of Peninsular Medals to the 5th Foot (Northumberland Fusiliers) were destroyed in a fire during the Blitz in 1940. Some of the fire damaged ones are in the Alnwick Fusiliers Museum. Mullen notes for some individual medals "Regimental Museum. In poor condition and without bars, having been salvaged from a 2nd Bn. property destroyed during the London Blitz, Sept 1940." I think quite a few were destroyed completely unfortunately.
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  #30  
Old 08-03-2015, 11:20 AM
janwhin janwhin is offline
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Then there's the Zulu War, of course, and I do have a fallen warrior lurking in my tree! Farrier Sergeant Robert Whinham, N Battery, 5th Brigade, Royal Artillery. He was born at Whitehouse Farm, Alnwick, his father, William, being gamekeeper to the Duke and living at Brizlee.

He fell at the Battle of Isandhlwana on 22 January 1879. According to the Alnwick Mercury, another Alnwick man also died, Gunner Marshall, son of J Marshall, photographer. It also states that every officer and man attached to the same two guns were also slain at the time. Robert was a regular, based at Woolwich.
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File Type: jpg Memorial Card Robert Whinham 1879.jpg (50.3 KB, 3 views)
File Type: jpg Farrier Sergeant Robert Whinham.jpg (37.7 KB, 4 views)
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  #31  
Old 08-03-2015, 11:34 AM
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According to the Alnwick Mercury, another Alnwick man also died, Gunner Marshall, son of J Marshall, photographer. It also states that every officer and man attached to the same two guns were also slain at the time. Robert was a regular, based at Woolwich.
Gunner Marshall, fell at Isandhlwana, same battery, was William Marshall, son of John Marshall, photographer. Aged about 18.
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  #32  
Old 08-03-2015, 11:41 AM
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Isandhlwana casualties form Alnwick. I learn a little every day. That's quite something to have in your ancestry.

I did a page on that disaster as well, sure enough the two guys are there.
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